The National Hurricane Center placed Hurricane Isaias near 23.3N 91.2W at 09:00 UTC Thursday, with 70-knot winds, and forecast a northern Gulf Coast landfall late Friday or early Saturday.
Hurricane Isaias was centered near 23.3 north, 91.2 west at 09:00 UTC on Thursday, about 150 nautical miles northwest of Progreso, Mexico, the National Hurricane Center said in its tropical weather discussion. The storm was moving east-northeast at 8 knots. Estimated minimum central pressure was 979 millibars. Maximum sustained winds were 70 knots, with gusts to 85 knots. Peak seas were near 20 feet.
The center said numerous moderate to strong convection extended from 21 north to 28 north between 85 west and 93 west, with scattered moderate convection in spiral rainbands in the southwestern Gulf. On the forecast track, Isaias was expected to pass north of the Yucatan Peninsula later Thursday and make landfall along the northern Gulf Coast, inside the warning area, late Friday or early Saturday.
Additional strengthening was expected through early Friday. The center said Isaias should remain a strong hurricane as it approaches the northern Gulf Coast on Friday night. The discussion projected the center near 24.2 north, 90.0 west Thursday afternoon, 28.4 north, 87.6 west Friday afternoon, and inland as a tropical storm near 31.0 north, 87.6 west Saturday morning.
Swells were forecast to affect the western and northern Yucatan later Thursday and spread toward the Gulf Coast on Friday. The center said those swells were likely to cause life-threatening surf and rip currents. A weakening stationary front over the northeastern Gulf, from the Tampa Bay region to 27 north, 86 west, was forecast to dissipate later Thursday.
The discussion is a forecast, not a landfall report. It did not give a casualty count or a measured storm-surge height for a specific city.