Hurricane Milton was a Category 3 hurricane with maximum sustained winds close to 125 mph as of 4 p.m. ET Wednesday.
Hurricane Milton is now a Category 3 storm as it churned Wednesday toward a potentially catastrophic collision along the west coast of Florida.
The Tampa Bay area, home to more than 3.3 million people, faced the possibility of widespread destruction after avoiding direct hits from major hurricanes for more than a century.
The storm is expected to make landfall along Florida's west-central coast late Wednesday or early Thursday, subsequently moving off the east coast of Florida and into the Atlantic Ocean on Thursday afternoon.
Hurricane Milton is heading toward west-central Florida as a Category 3 storm with 120 mph winds. Landfall is expected between 8:30 and 9:30 p.m. ET
The storm is about 50 miles west-southeast of Sarasota and moving at 15 mph.
The latest storm surge forecast is nine to 13 feet for Sarasota, six to nine feet for Tampa and eight to 12 feet for Fort Myers.
Widespread heavy rain is impacting much of the Florida peninsula with tropical storm-force winds spreading inland.
A recent wind gust of 68 miles per hour was reported in Fort Myers Beach, Florida.
There have been at least 15 reported tornadoes across the Florida peninsula so far today with the majority of them across South Florida. Multiple tornadoes have been confirmed in South Florida so far, including the Miami-Dade area.
The tornado threat continues with several tornado warnings currently in effect across the eastern Florida peninsula, from west of West Palm Beach to just southeast of Orlando.
More than 150,000 customers already without power before Hurricane Milton makes landfall in Florida
As of 5:30 p.m. ET, there were 157,534 customers without power across Florida ahead of Hurricane Milton's expected landfall, according to poweroutage.us.
At least 15 tornadoes have been reported on Wednesday, mostly in South Florida.
Several tornado warnings are ongoing across the eastern Florida peninsula, from west of West Palm Beach to just southeast of Orlando.
With major airports already shutting down, gas stations running low on fuel, a spate of tornado warnings and bridges on the Florida Peninsula closing, authorities are warning residents in the path of Hurricane Milton that it may be too late to evacuate.
READ MORE | 'This is it, folks': Florida officials warn it may be too late to evacuate
"This is it, folks," Kathy Perkins, Pinellas County's emergency management director, said Wednesday morning. "I'm not saying this to scare you -- I want you to be prepared."
Milton was downgraded to a Category 3 hurricane Wednesday but remained a major storm and a grave threat as it closed in on Florida's west coast, where officials sounded urgent warnings for residents to flee inland or face grim odds of surviving the storm's surge.
Milton has fluctuated in strength as it approached, but regardless of the distinction in wind speeds, the National Hurricane Center said it would be a major and extremely dangerous storm when its center makes landfall late Wednesday.
Officials said at 3 p.m. that the Category 4 storm's center was 120 miles (193 kilometers) southwest of Tampa and 110 miles (177 kilometers) west of Fort Myers. It had maximum sustained winds of 130 mph (209 kph).
The storm is expected to make landfall Wednesday night.
