The Atlantic’s first hurricane of the season officially made landfall as a dangerous Category 2 storm.
Hurricane Isaias made landfall near Destin, Florida, with maximum winds of 105 mph, around 9:30 p.m. ET, according to the National Hurricane Center.
Evacuation warnings for the area were given out well in advance, and Florida’s highway patrol began closing roadways once sustained winds of more than 39 mph were recorded. Scores of rescue teams remain pre-positioned and standing by to enter the scene once conditions improve enough.
The National Hurricane Center said in an update that the storm was moving across the western Florida Panhandle, bringing damaging winds and increasing the risk of flash flooding inland.
The agency warned of a potential life-threatening storm surge along the coast from Dauphin Island in Alabama to Suwannee in Florida, where a storm surge warning remains in effect.
More than 630,000 residents in Florida and Alabama were without electricity due to the storm, according to PowerOutage.com.
Just before its arrival, around 10 p.m. ET, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis held a press conference from the state’s emergency operations center in Tallahassee.
“For the next 24 to 36 hours, you’re going to see some nasty weather one way or another if you’re in this part of the state,” DeSantis said. “We got a massive amount of supplies and personnel ready to respond once the storm hits.”
Alabama Gov. Kay Ivey earlier ordered the evacuation of tourists and visitors from coastal areas of Baldwin County south of the Gulf Intracoastal Waterway, including Gulf Shores and Orange Beach, and from Dauphin Island in Mobile County.
Isaias emerged near the Yucatan as a Tropical Storm on Oct. 7, and quickly developed into a major hurricane by Oct. 9, with maximum sustained winds reaching 120 mph before deteriorating.
The National Hurricane Center consistently kept its projected track on the Gulf Coast between the Mouth of the Mississippi and Panama City, with the center of that forecast cone being around Alabama’s greater Mobile Bay Area. But Isaias continued to trek slightly east, ultimately making landfall in the Sunshine State.
The Atlantic Hurricane Season begins on June 1 every year. While the 2026 season has seen several tropical storms, Isaias set a record for the latest first hurricane to form since the satellite era began in the 1960s. It falls short of the all-time latest start, which was set in 1905 by a storm that formed only a few hours later on Oct. 8.
The unusual calm of this hurricane season is credited to the increased wind shear over the Gulf of America and the Caribbean brought about by the ongoing El Niño weather pattern.
Nevertheless, Isaias is expected to go farther inland and deliver debilitating storm conditions across the South, from Georgia and the Carolinas to Tennessee and parts of Appalachia.
