Latest forecast: Hurricane Isaac 2012 path to menace Florida, Gulf Coast early next week
The forecast models are sharpening as Tropical Storm Isaac makes its way through the Caribbean. Odds are now high that the Hurricane Isaac 2012 path will either make a direct hit or a close-brush menace on Florida, before troubling other states along the U.S. Gulf Coast region.
“Isaac could become a hurricane Thursday night or Friday,” the National Hurricane Center said. “Some strengthening is forecast during the next 48 hours.”
The 11 a.m. eastern time update Thursday from the National Hurricane Center noted that a hurricane warning has been issued for Haiti. The NHC said the storm is expected to make "a gradual turn toward the west-northwest...over the next couple of days."
"On the forecast track..the center of Isaac should continue to move away from the Leeward Islands during the next few hours...pass to the south of the Virgin Islands and Puerto Rico on Thursday...and approach the Dominican Republic Thursday night and Friday.
Updated forecast path models from the NHC also show the storm likely making a direct hit on Florida Monday, and over land Tuesday, before making its way up the west side of the state and troubling Alabama, Mississippi and Georgia; or menacing Florida from near water on the west, before likely menacing the other nearby states in the Gulf Coast region late Tuesday and Wednesday.
The current tropical storm is expected to strike as category 1 or category 2 Hurricane Isaac, perhaps the first of 2012 to strike U.S. land.
"Isaac eyes Florida," reads a headline Thursday morning from AccuWeather.
"Current projections bring Isaac, now a strengthening tropical storm, to Florida's neighborhood during the first part of next week," writes Alex Sosnowski, an expert Senior Meteorologist there.
Meanwhile, tropical Storm Isaac took aim at the Dominican Republic and Haiti early Thursday, expected to gain strength after drenching tiny islands in its whirl over the eastern entrance to the Caribbean.
No major damage was reported, but authorities in Puerto Rico said an elderly woman died in an accident while preparing for the storm.
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