Tampa Bay Buccaneers heading to New Orleans early to avoid Hurricane Milton

By Sam Joseph, CNN

(CNN) — The Tampa Bay Buccaneers are departing for their Week 6 matchup early in order to avoid the expected landfall of Hurricane Milton in Tampa, Florida.

The team announced that it will leave Tampa on Tuesday morning and would be “relocating operations” to the New Orleans area for the rest of the week. The 3-2 Buccaneers take on the 2-3 New Orleans Saints in an NFC South divisional game on Sunday.

The Bucs have had a handful of extra days to recuperate after a dramatic overtime loss to another NFC South team, the Atlanta Falcons, on Thursday, while the Saints will be looking to bounce back from a defeat against the reigning Super Bowl champions Kansas City Chiefs on Monday.

Milton has reached speeds of 175 mph and was classed as a Category 5 hurricane on Monday, but has dipped back into Category 4 status. It is the strongest hurricane to occur anywhere on the planet this year and one of the 10 strongest (tied for ninth) hurricanes ever recorded in the Atlantic.

It is expected to regain Category 5 strength on Tuesday morning and maintain this strength through the day. The hurricane is expected to fluctuate in intensity before ultimately making landfall on Wednesday as a Category 3 storm.

Florida is less than two weeks removed from the deadly effects of Hurricane Helene.

“Milton has the potential to be one of the most destructive hurricanes on record for west-central Florida,” said the National Hurricane Center.

“Milton is still a relatively compact hurricane, but the wind field is expected to continue to grow in size as it approaches Florida. In fact, the official forecast shows the hurricane and tropical-storm-force winds roughly doubling in size by the time it makes landfall.”

Follow the latest updates on Hurricane Milton here.

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CNN’s Allison Chinchar and Brandon Miller contributed to this report.