{"id":423429,"date":"2026-10-09T16:22:24","date_gmt":"2026-10-09T16:22:24","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/423429\/"},"modified":"2026-10-09T16:22:24","modified_gmt":"2026-10-09T16:22:24","slug":"hurricane-isaias-strengthens-to-category-3-storm-on-way-to-florida","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/423429\/","title":{"rendered":"Hurricane Isaias strengthens to category 3 storm on way to Florida"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Hurricane \"Hurricane Hurricane Isaias becomes major cat. 3 storm<\/a> <\/p>\n

Hurricane Isaias rapidly intensified into a “major” category 3 hurricane on Friday morning with maximum sustained winds of 120 miles per hour, the National Hurricane Center said. It’s expected to make landfall Friday night or Saturday morning along the southern U.S. coast, likely between Mobile and Pensacola.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Hurricane Isaias rapidly intensified into a “major” category 3 hurricane on Friday morning with maximum sustained winds of 120 miles per hour, the National Hurricane Center said.<\/p>\n

When will Hurricane Isaias make landfall? <\/p>\n

Timeline:<\/p>\n

Hurricane Isaias is expected to make landfall Friday night or Saturday morning as a powerful category 2 hurricane along the southern U.S. coast, somewhere between Mobile, Alabama, and Pensacola, Florida, the NHC said.<\/p>\n

\"\" <\/p>\n

Forecasters said Hurricane Isaias is expected to get stronger over the next 12 hours as it moves over warm and deep water in the Gulf. It will then hit wind shear, which could weaken it a little bit to a category 2 hurricane.<\/p>\n

“Regardless of its exact wind speed at landfall, Isaias will be a dangerous hurricane with significant storm surge, damaging winds, and flooding rains,” the NHC said.<\/p>\n

Gulf Coast threats <\/p>\n

Local perspective:<\/p>\n

Regardless of its exact intensity at landfall, Isaias will remain extremely dangerous. Its wind field is expected to expand as the hurricane interacts with an approaching upper-level trough, spreading damaging winds and storm surge well away from the center.<\/p>\n

Storm surge could extend as far east as Tampa Bay with 1-2 feet higher than normal waters and on the Big Bend from Cedar key to Horseshoe beach, 2-4 feet of storm surge. There could be more than 7 feet of storm surge from Panama City Beach to Mobile Bay, Alabama.<\/p>\n

\"\" <\/p>\n

Significant storm surge, hurricane-force winds, widespread power outages and flooding rainfall are expected near and east of landfall.<\/p>\n

The eastern side of Isaias will also need to be watched for tropical tornadoes tonight into Saturday.<\/p>\n

Watches and warnings <\/p>\n

Additional Tropical Storm and High Wind Watches or Warnings are possible later today.<\/p>\n

Heavy rainfall will also spread across much of the Southeast through the weekend, bringing the potential for significant flash flooding, urban flooding and river flooding.
By Sunday, the weakening post-tropical circulation is expected to move northeastward, with dissipation forecast by early Monday.<\/p>\n

Will Hurricane Isaias impact Central Florida? <\/p>\n

The greatest direct impacts from Hurricane Isaias remain well northwest of Central Florida.<\/p>\n

Our main concerns continue to be scattered to numerous afternoon thunderstorms, with occasional strong wind gusts and localized flooding through Sunday.<\/p>\n

The good news: Isaias will help set the stage for a pattern change early next week, with a weak front arriving Monday and substantially drier air finally returning to Central Florida. It’ll feel like fall again.<\/p>\n

The Source: This story was written based on information released by the National Hurricane Center and the FOX 35 Storm Team.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Tracking The Tropics: News, Forecasts, Updates<\/a>Florida News<\/a> <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Hurricane Isaias becomes major cat. 3 storm Hurricane Isaias rapidly intensified into a “major” category 3 hurricane on…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":423430,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[47,115,139,141,140,10173,13435,628,221],"class_list":["post-423429","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-orlando","tag-fl","tag-news","tag-orlando","tag-orlando-headlines","tag-orlando-news","tag-severe-weather","tag-tropical-news","tag-us","tag-weather"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/423429","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=423429"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/423429\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/423430"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=423429"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=423429"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=423429"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}