Hurricane Isaias’ track shifts slightly west. Will storm impact Columbus?
Hurricane Isaias is not expected to impact the Columbus area when it hits Georgia and the Carolinas, according to the National Weather Service.
The newly formed Hurricane Isaias is forecast to reach Georgia and the Carolinas on Sunday and Monday, potentially as a Category 1 hurricane, bringing high winds and rain to large swaths of the three states. The projected track for the storm shifted slightly west and closer to the Georgia coastline at the NWS 11 a.m. update.
“We could still see our usual summertime patterns of showers and thunderstorms,” National Weather Service-Peachtree City meteorologist and forecaster Lauren Reaves said Friday.
Isaias’ expected path has also flip-flopped across Florida’s coasts and the Bahamas several times this week. Isaias’ path was originally headed straight for Georgia and has slowly turned east throughout the week.
Models generally seem in consensus that the storm’s path will take it between Florida and the Bahamas next.
“Maybe a slight breeze (in Columbus),” WLTZ meteorologist Dana Barker said. “If anything, it might make us drier this weekend.”
Isaias became a Category 1 hurricane around midnight Thursday, the National Hurricane Center said in a tweet. It is predicted to cross the Bahamas as a Category 2 hurricane.
The forecast cone shows the storm arriving off the North and South Carolina coastlines closer to 2 p.m. Monday, McClatchy reported.
The storm battered Puerto Rico on Thursday afternoon with sustained winds of 80 mph and was moving west/northwest at 18 mph toward the Bahamas. That’s a slight drop in speed from Wednesday.
Hurricane-force winds extend outward up to 30 miles from the center and tropical-storm-force winds extend outward out 240 miles, forecasters say.
The eye of the storm will likely stay off the east coast of Florida and move north, where it should reach the Georgia-South Carolina border late Sunday, according to the National Hurricane Center. It is expected to be off North Carolina’s Banks by 8 p.m. Monday, the National Hurricane Center says.
