Hurricane Isaias is the first Atlantic hurricane of 2026, and it is already a record setter. It is the latest first hurricane of the Atlantic season in the reliable records, and it is spinning straight toward the Gulf Coast with landfall expected late Friday night or early Saturday morning.
As of 11 p.m. ET Thursday, Isaias packed 105 mph winds, making it a Category 2. The National Hurricane Center says it could briefly touch Category 3 with 115 mph winds on Friday before coming ashore near the Florida-Alabama border at around 100 mph. Thursday night the storm sat about 260 miles south of the mouth of the Mississippi River, moving north-northeast at 14 mph.
The water is the scary part. A life-threatening storm surge of 5 to 7 feet is forecast along the northern Gulf Coast, with up to 10 inches of rain and a serious tornado risk in the rain bands. Florida Senator Rick Scott did not mince words at a news conference in Pensacola: “You cannot survive 5 to 7 feet of storm surge. It will kill you.”
Alabama Gov. Kay Ivey told tourists and visitors in Baldwin County south of the Gulf Intracoastal Waterway and on Dauphin Island to evacuate immediately, after declaring a state of emergency for 40 Alabama counties. In Florida, Gov. Ron DeSantis declared emergencies for 25 counties, saying the state is preparing for a Category 3 landfall near the Panhandle, with 6,000 utility linemen staged and more than a million bottles of water ready to go out. Hurricane warnings run from Ocean Springs, Mississippi to the Bay/Gulf County line in Florida.
Schools across the region are closed Thursday and Friday, and the storm is already messing with college football: ESPN is moving “College GameDay” indoors to Coleman Coliseum ahead of Saturday’s Alabama-Georgia game, which officials say they are monitoring. The 2026 season has been one of the slowest on record because of a strong El Nino, which makes Isaias’ jump from tropical storm Wednesday morning to hurricane late that night even wilder.