Tropical Storm Isaias is forecast to strengthen into a Category 1 hurricane later Monday as it gains strength off the coast of Georgia and the Carolinas, the National Hurricane Center said.
Aug. 3 (UPI) — Tropical Storm Isaias is forecast to strengthen into a Category 1 hurricane later Monday as it gains strength off the coast of Georgia and the Carolinas, the National Hurricane Center said.
The National Hurricane Center said in its 8 a.m. update Monday that Isaias was 100 miles southeast of Jacksonville, Fla., and 250 miles southwest of Myrtle Beach, S. C. It had maximum sustained winds of 70 mph and was moving north at 13 mph.
A tropical storm becomes a Category 1 hurricane once it produces maximum sustained winds of 74 mph.
Isaias increased its movement speed early Monday as it swirled off the coast of northeastern Florida and Georgia. In its update, the NHC said the storm is now passing “well offshore” the northeast Florida coast.
A hurricane warning is in effect from South Santee River, S. C., to Surf City, N. C., and a tropical storm warning is in effect for parts of northeast Florida and coastal points north.
“On the forecast track, the center of Isaias will pass well east of the Georgia coast through this morning,” the NHC said Monday. “The center of Isaias will then approach the coast of northeastern South Carolina and southern North Carolina within the hurricane warning area later today.
“The center will then move inland over eastern North Carolina tonight, and move along the coast of the mid-Atlantic states on Tuesday and into the northeastern United States by Tuesday night.”
As the weekend wound down, Isaias, which had briefly been a Category 1 hurricane that pounded the Bahamas last week with powerful winds and flooding rains, churned up the Atlantic coast of Florida.
