Hurricane Isaac 1PM CDT Advisory for Tuesday, August 28th, 2012

NHC Headline: Hurricane Isaac is moving northwestward towards the Mouth of the Mississippi River; flooding from storm surge and rainfall expected.   

All the information is as of the 1PM CDT Advisory.
Cat: 1

Location: 28.4N 88.7W

About 55 Miles SSE of the Mouth of the Mississippi River

About 135 Miles SE of New Orleans, LA

Maximum Sustained Winds: 75MPH

Present Movement: NW or 310 degrees at 10MPH

Minimum Central Pressure: 975mb, 28.79 inches

Days 1-3

NHC has Isaac hitting as a hurricane late tonight, into early Wednesday morning around the New Orleans area. This does not mean New Orleans will get hit. This can go west of New Orleans; it can go east of New Orleans. Whatever you do, don’t just look at the line on the map; look at the areas in white in the cone. Those areas could get hit also. In the days 1-3, NHC has this becoming a tropical storm later in the day, most likely after land fall and a tropical depression by Friday morning.

Days 1-5

Days 4 and 5 bring what is left of Isaac into Indiana, Illinois, and Kentucky. We look to be on the flooding side with heavy downpours. As for severe weather, we will wait and see.

Rainfall total forecast valid thru 8AM EDT Sunday

Flooding, heavy rainfall, and storm surges should remain the biggest threats from Isaac. The tornado threat will be low because tropical systems just do not have the conditions to produce tornadoes that well. Once this gets less of water and more of land, we will see what will happen. Isaac should hit land as a cat 1 hurricane and start to weaken after that. Isaac is running out of space and time to become a major hurricane. 

BIG NOTE: People have been comparing Isaac to Katrina. This will be nowhere near Katrina. She was a storm that we may not see for a while. As a matter of fact, the whole 2005 season may be something we won’t see again for a while. Katrina went from a cat 3 to a cat 5 in nine hours. Isaac just became a hurricane today. I won’t make any comparisons of Isaac to any past storm until the NHC and NWS say that Isaac is now in the history books.