Hurricane Isaias could reach Category 3 this morning as it approaches landfall on the Gulf Coast.
While the forecast calls for the storm to weaken slightly ahead of landfall, the storm is still 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 Friday, Hurricane Isaias has 110-mph maximum sustained winds and is moving north-northeast at 15 mph. It’s located about 200 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 today as it approaches the Gulf Coast.
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Most of the spaghetti models predict the storm will make landfall between Mobile, Alabama and Pensacola, Florida, according to storm tracking site Cyclocane. 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 storm surge warning is in effect from between the Mouth of the Mississippi River to the Suwannee River.
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.
