Hurricane Isaias strengthened Thursday morning as it continues its arcing path toward the Gulf Coast.
The storm is expected to make landfall as a hurricane late Friday or early Saturday morning, according to the National Weather Service, which offers a suite of online storm-tracking forecasts and graphics on the National Hurricane Center website.
As of 5 a.m. ET Thursday, Hurricane Isaias has 80-mph maximum sustained winds and is moving east-northeast at 9 mph. It’s located about 420 miles away from the mouth of the Mississippi River, according to the NHC forecast.
The National Hurricane Center’s prediction cone shows the storm turning north early Friday as it approaches the Gulf Coast.
Mashable Light Speed
Most of the spaghetti models predict the storm strength to reach Category 1 and Category 2, according to storm tracking site Cyclocane. While many of the spaghetti models place landfall between Biloxi, Mississippi and Pensacola, Florida, it’s important to remember that the impacted areas are far larger than the plotted points of a spaghetti model.
Hurricane warnings are in place from Ocean Springs, Mississippi to the Bay and Gulf County lines in Florida, with tropical storm warnings extending even further east and west of the storm’s path.
A spaghetti model is a collection of storm-tracking forecasts that plot their predictions of a storm’s path, all overlaid on a map to provide an estimated visual track of the storm.
The latest forecasts, updated multiple times daily, can be tracked online on the National Hurricane Center website.
