{"id":25484,"date":"2026-10-09T13:10:12","date_gmt":"2026-10-09T13:10:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/jayhobgood.com\/?p=25484"},"modified":"2026-10-09T13:10:12","modified_gmt":"2026-10-09T13:10:12","slug":"isaias-intensifies-to-a-major-hurricane","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/jayhobgood.com\/?p=25484","title":{"rendered":"Isaias Intensifies to a Major Hurricane"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Hurricane Isaias intensified to a major hurricane early on Friday as it moved toward the northern Gulf Coast.\u00a0 At 8:20 a.m. EDT on Friday the center of Hurricane Isaias was located at latitude 27.0\u00b0N and longitude 87.6\u00b0W which put the center about 240 miles (390 km) south of Pensacola, Florida.\u00a0 Isaias was moving toward the north-northeast at 15 m.p.h. (24 km\/h).\u00a0 The maximum sustained wind speed was 120 m.p.h. (195 km\/h) and there were wind gusts to 140 m.p.h. (225 km\/h).\u00a0 The minimum surface pressure was 959 mb.<\/p>\n<p><strong><span style=\"color: #ff0000;\">A Hurricane Warning is in effect for the portion of the coast from Ocean Springs, Mississippi to the Bay County\/ Gulf County line in Florida.\u00a0 The Hurricane Warning includes Mobile, Alabama and Pensacola, Florida.<\/span><br \/>\n<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #ff6600;\"><strong>A Tropical Storm Warning is in effect for the portion of the coast from the Jefferson Parish\/Plaquemines Parish line in Louisiana to Ocean Springs, Mississippi.<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #ff6600;\"><strong>A Tropical Storm Warning is in effect for the portion of the coast from the Bay County\/Gulf County Line to Aucilla River, Florida.<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n<p>Aircraft reconnaissance found that Hurricane Isaias had intensified to a major hurricane on Friday morning.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/jayhobgood.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/10\/Isaias100926.png\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-medium wp-image-25485\" src=\"https:\/\/jayhobgood.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/10\/Isaias100926-300x281.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"300\" height=\"281\" srcset=\"https:\/\/jayhobgood.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/10\/Isaias100926-300x281.png 300w, https:\/\/jayhobgood.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/10\/Isaias100926-624x584.png 624w, https:\/\/jayhobgood.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/10\/Isaias100926.png 650w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>A circular eye with a diameter of 25 miles (40 km) was at the center of Hurricane Isaias.\u00a0 Bands of showers and thunderstorms were revolving around the center of Isaias\u2019 circulation.\u00a0 Storms near the center of Isaias generated upper level divergence that pumped mass away from the tropical storm.\u00a0 The removal of mass caused the surface pressure to decrease.<\/p>\n<p>The size of the circulation around Hurricane Isaias increased on Thursday night.\u00a0 Winds to hurricane force extended out 30 miles (50 km) from the center of Isaias\u2019 circulation.\u00a0 Winds to tropical storm force extended out 185 miles (295 km) from the center of Hurricane Isaias.<\/p>\n<p>The Hurricane Intensity Index (HII) for Hurricane Isaias is 22.1.\u00a0 The Hurricane Size Index (HSI) is 12.0 and the Hurricane Wind Intensity Size Index (HWISI) is 34.1.\u00a0 Hurricane Isaias is similar in size and intensity to Hurricane Dennis when Dennis hit Northwest Florida in 2005.<\/p>\n<p>Hurricane Isaias will move through an environment that will be somewhat favorable for intensification during the next 12 hours.\u00a0 Isaias will move over water where the Sea Surface Temperatures are near 30\u00b0C.\u00a0 It will move under the southeastern part of an upper level trough that is over Texas.\u00a0 The upper level trough will produce southwesterly winds that will blow toward the top of Isaias\u2019 circulation.\u00a0 Those winds will cause moderate vertical wind shear, but the wind shear may not be enough to prevent intensification.\u00a0 Hurricane Isaias could intensify during the next 12 hours.<\/p>\n<p>The upper level trough over Texas will steer Isaias toward the north during the next 24 hours. On its anticipated track, Isaias will make landfall on the northern Gulf Coast near Pensacola, Florida on Friday night.<\/p>\n<p>Hurricane Isaias will bring strong winds and locally heavy rain to the northern Gulf Coast.\u00a0 Heavy rain could cause flash floods in some locations.\u00a0 Isaias will be capable of causing major damage.\u00a0 Widespread electricity outages are likely.<\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #993300;\"><strong>Flood Watches are in effect for parts of southern Mississippi, southern Alabama, and Northwest Florida.<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n<p>Isaias could cause a storm surge of up to 13 feet (4 meters) along portions of the northern Gulf Coast.<\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #33cccc;\"><strong>A Storm Surge Warning is in effect for the portion of the coast from the Mouth of the Mississippi River to Suwannee River, Florida.<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Hurricane Isaias intensified to a major hurricane early on Friday as it moved toward the northern Gulf Coast.\u00a0 At 8:20 a.m. EDT on Friday the center of Hurricane Isaias was located at latitude 27.0\u00b0N and longitude 87.6\u00b0W which put the center about 240 miles (390 km) south of Pensacola, Florida.\u00a0 Isaias was moving toward the [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3,2],"tags":[491,492,384,4253,3738,51,4175,2107,650,2104,4176,113,493,837,4250,1215,4177,3082],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/jayhobgood.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25484"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/jayhobgood.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/jayhobgood.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jayhobgood.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jayhobgood.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=25484"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/jayhobgood.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25484\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":25486,"href":"https:\/\/jayhobgood.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25484\/revisions\/25486"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/jayhobgood.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=25484"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jayhobgood.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=25484"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jayhobgood.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=25484"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}