First hurricane to reach U.S. in 2026 could arrive by Friday night

The first major storm of the 2026 Atlantic hurricane season strengthened to dangerous category 3 status over the Gulf of Mexico last night, but is forecasted to weaken quickly once it makes landfall on the Alabama coast sometime Friday night.

Hurricane Isaias—which is pronounced “issy-ay-ahs”—will likely come ashore late Friday night or early Saturday morning around Mobile Bay, Alabama, according to forecasts from Everstream. But the storm will likely weaken right before making landfall to a category 1 or strong tropical ranking, and then it will move fairly quickly overland, as opposed to stalling out and dumping dangerous loads of rain in concentrated locations, the firm said.

That means its rainfall totals will likely be in the range of 3 inches to 7 inches, which is on the lower range of hurricane-spectrum drenchings which can typically reach well into the double digits, Everstream said. Likewise, its windspeed, storm surge, and electrical power outage potential will be moderate. It total, Hurricane Isaias will not be as big an event as other recent hurricanes to strike the region, such as Helene and Milton, which both struck in 2024, Everstream’s chief science officer, Mark Russo, said in a video briefing.

Still, the storm could impact supply chains by causing flooding, slowdowns, or potential closures of interstate highways including I-10 between Slidell, Louisiana, and the middle of the Florida panhandle, and I-65 near Mobile, Alabama, he said. At the time of the briefing, Everstream said that no cargo airports were expected to close and the Port of New Orleans planned to continue operating.

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