How strong can Cat 5 Milton get? This hurricane may approach the maximum limit --Milton hit sustained winds at 180 mph at 5 p.m. ET | 7 Oct 2024 | Milton, which blew up into a Category 5 hurricane Monday and kept going, is pushing the boundaries, approaching what's known among hurricane experts as the Maximum Potential Intensity or MPI. When meteorologists pull out that measure, you know the hurricane is a monster -- and Milton is that. At 5 p.m., the National Hurricane Center said its sustained winds had hit 180 mph. The top-end hurricane is feeding on a seemingly bottomless buffet of record or near-record hot waters in the Gulf of Mexico, which weren't cooled much by the passage of Hurricane Helene less than two weeks ago. It has friendly winds and not much land in sight, unless it edges closer to the northern end of the Yucatan peninsula. That puts the glass ceiling of MPI for Milton at around 195 mph, with an atmospheric pressure near 900 MB, said Tomer Burg, a researcher with the National Weather Service's Weather Prediction Center.