MIAMI — Hurricane Isaias, the first hurricane of the 2026 Atlantic season, strengthened into a major hurricane Friday morning as it closed in on the northern Gulf Coast, the National Hurricane Center said.
As of 7:20 a.m. CDT, the Category 3 storm had maximum sustained winds of 120 mph and a minimum central pressure of 959 millibars. It was about 240 miles south of Pensacola, Florida, and about 170 miles south-southeast of the mouth of the Mississippi River, moving north-northeast at 15 mph.
Forecasters said a turn toward the north was expected later Friday. On that track, Isaias was forecast to approach the northern Gulf Coast in the afternoon and make landfall within the hurricane warning area Friday night or early Saturday morning. Some weakening was expected before landfall, but the center said the storm would remain a dangerous hurricane, with life-threatening storm surge, damaging winds and flooding rain.
A hurricane warning was in effect from Ocean Springs, Mississippi, to the Bay-Gulf county line in Florida. A storm surge warning covered the coast from the mouth of the Mississippi River to the Suwannee River in Florida. Tropical storm warnings extended farther west into southeastern Louisiana and east into the Florida Big Bend.
Isaias became a hurricane overnight Wednesday into Thursday after forming in the Bay of Campeche on Oct. 6. It is the ninth named storm of the season and the first to reach hurricane strength. No Atlantic hurricane formed in September, the climatological peak of the season — the first September without one in the satellite era.
The previous latest first hurricane in that era, which dates to 1966, was Sept. 11, a mark set by Gustav in 2002 and matched by Humberto in 2013. Isaias’ arrival also ties the Oct. 8 date of the 1905 season’s first hurricane, the latest in records going back to 1851. Meteorologists have attributed the long quiet stretch to a strong El Niño, which has produced high wind shear and dry air over much of the basin.
The Atlantic hurricane season runs through Nov. 30.
Author: Lynnwood Times Staff
