The National Hurricane Center put Hurricane Isaias near 24.0N 89.8W at 18:00 UTC with 85 mph winds and a 975 mb pressure, and kept hurricane and storm-surge warnings on the northern Gulf Coast.
Hurricane Isaias was a stronger hurricane over the Gulf of Mexico on Thursday afternoon, the National Hurricane Center said in intermediate advisory 8A at 1 p.m. CDT, or 18:00 UTC. The center was near latitude 24.0 north, longitude 89.8 west, about 185 miles north of Progreso, Mexico, and about 355 miles south of the mouth of the Mississippi River.
Maximum sustained winds were near 85 mph, or 140 km/h, with a minimum central pressure of 975 millibars. The storm was moving east-northeast near 10 mph. That is a step up from the center's early-morning aircraft estimate of about 75 mph. Discussion number 8, issued at 10 a.m. CDT, said an Air Force Hurricane Hunter found the pressure still falling and maximum winds near 75 knots.
Watches and warnings did not change with the intermediate advisory. A hurricane warning remains in effect from Ocean Springs, Mississippi, to the Bay and Gulf county line in Florida. A storm-surge warning runs from the mouth of the Mississippi River to the Suwannee River. A tropical-storm warning covers the coast from the Jefferson and Plaquemines parish line in Louisiana to west of Ocean Springs.
The center said a turn toward the northeast was expected later Thursday, then a northward turn on Friday. On that track, Isaias was expected to pass north of the Yucatan Peninsula and make landfall on the northern Gulf Coast inside the warning area late Friday or early Saturday. Further strengthening was expected through early Friday, and the center said the storm should remain a dangerous hurricane as it approaches the coast Friday night.
The advisory told residents in the warning area to finish preparations for storm surge and damaging winds on Thursday. It is a forecast, not a landfall report, and it did not list individual evacuation orders.