Virginia seems to have a thing for “I” storms, from Irene to Isabel — this looks to be no different. Isaias became a hurricane overnight with maximum sustained winds near 80 mph. We’re only at only July 31 and the peak of hurricane season is around September 10th. The latest path from the National Hurricane Center intensifies Isaias in the Bahamas and off the Florida coast as a Category 2 storm, then slowly weakening as it approaches the Carolina Coast. It’s still forecast to remain a hurricane off the Virginia coast late Monday night or Tuesday morning.
There remains potential for this system to intensity further as there’s plenty of warm water to work with and Isaias will travel across the warm gulf stream waters off the southeast coast Sunday into Monday. The system is being steered by a large high pressure system in the Atlantic. As the system moves northwest, then north, Isaias is expected to slow down before interaction with a trough dipping across the Eastern United States, which will help steer Isaias along the southeast and Mid-Atlantic coastline.
