2 p.m. update: Isaac’s pressure dropped from 988 to 984 mb, its lowest yet. It remains a strong tropical storm but is closer to becoming a hurricane.
It’s headed towards the northern Gulf Coast where it has the potential to produce destructive winds, a dangerous storm surge and flooding rains.
At 11 a.m. EDT, the intensity was still 65mph, 9 mph shy of the hurricane threshold. It is located 215 miles west of Fort Myers, FL, and 390 miles southeast of New Orleans, LA, moving towards the northwest at 14 mph.
Florida effects
Peak wind gusts today in Florida from National Weather Service and WeatherBug observing stations (WeatherBug)
Across southern Florida, gusts have reached 50-80 mph, leading to about 70,000 scattered power outages (23,000 in Miami-Dade)..
Republican National Convention (RNC)
As far as the RNC in Tampa goes, today was supposed to have been the opening day of the event, but the threat of tropical storm or hurricane conditions forced the planners to suspend the beginning until Tuesday... compressing the 4-day convention into 3 days. Over the past day, wind gusts have reached 25 mph accompanied by heavy rain. For the most part, convention-goers were spared what could have been much more severe conditions and storm surge.
Isaac is on a very similar track as Katrina was seven years ago. However, Isaac will almost certainly not become a monster Category 5 storm in the central Gulf. Katrina weakened to a Category 3 hurricane as it made landfall just east of New Orleans during the early morning hours of August 29, 2005. Only some of the destruction occurred during the storm, but the bulk came after the storm passed and the storm surge overwhelmed and breached the levees, allowing parts of the city to fill with sea water.
Related: Tropical storm Isaac inches towards hurricane strength, all eyes on New Orleans
There are no models predicting Isaac to be any more than a Category 2 storm at landfall, though even a storm of that intensity that must be taken very seriously. The figure above has Katrina’s track as well as Isaac’s track plotted. Katrina’s is the one that came into Miami, intensified tremendously over the Gulf, then hit eastern Louisiana. Isaac skimmed northen Cuba, passed west of the Keys, and is making a direct path for the same area that Katrina hit... within hours of the infamous anniversary.
Storm impacts and warnings
The latest watches and warnings along the northern Gulf coast. Hurricane warnings are in red, and tropical storm warnings are in blue. (NOAA/NHC)
Tropical storm conditions should begin to affect the area as early as this evening, and hurricane conditions could begin by midday Tuesday. As always, keep in mind that the white cone represents an average track error, and severe conditions will occur well outside of the cone.
Link: Interactive hurricane tracker
While rainfall and winds will inevitably cause damage, the northern Gulf coast is very prone to large storm surge. The storm surge is water pushed ashore by the storm’s winds... when it reaches the coast, it has nowhere to go but inland. The flatter the land is, the further inland the water can reach.
Storm surge depths (in feet) from the SLOSH model run early Monday morning. Storm surge is extremely sensitive to the exact track, translation speed, and intensity, so any nudge at all to the storm’s forecast will alter this surge forecast. (NOAA/NHC)
Brian McNoldy is a senior researcher at the University of Miami’s Rosenstiel School of Marine and Atmospheric Science.
