Hurricane Milton strengthens to category 5 as it heads toward Florida.

Hurricane Milton, which reached that category yesterday, has continued to rapidly intensify, to the point that on the morning of this Monday it has become category 5, the highest level on the Saffir-Simpson scale, while moving over the Gulf of Mexico and approaching Florida, warned the National Hurricane Center of the United States (NHC, for its acronym in English).

Milton increased the intensity of its maximum sustained winds, surpassing 250 kilometers per hour, according to data recorded by a hurricane hunter aircraft. The tropical cyclone is moving to the east-southeast at a speed of 13 kilometers per hour.

Currently, Hurricane Milton is located 190 kilometers west-northwest of Celestún and 240 kilometers west of Progreso, both in the Mexican state of Yucatán, and 1,195 kilometers west-southwest of Tampa, Florida, towards which it is headed, according to the forecasted trajectory.

According to the NHC, Milton will move near or just north of the Yucatán Peninsula during Monday and Tuesday. Subsequently, it will cross the eastern Gulf of Mexico and approach the west coast of Florida on Wednesday.

According to the AP agency, the center of the hurricane could make landfall on Wednesday in the Tampa Bay area and could maintain its hurricane status while moving through central Florida toward the Atlantic Ocean. This path would largely spare other states that were severely affected by Hurricane Helene, which caused the deaths of at least 230 people on its path from Florida to the Appalachian Mountains.

The Cuban Institute of Meteorology (Insmet) is monitoring the phenomenon due to its current position, intensity forecast, and future trajectory, as intense rains and strong winds associated with the system are possible in the west and center of the island.