UPDATED: The 11 p.m. EDT NHC forecasts keeps Isaias as a category 1 hurricane with highest wind speeds predicted at 95 mph.  A category 2 hurricane begins at 96 mph wind speeds.

HOLT, Fla., July 31, 2020—Tropical Storm Isaias strengthened to a hurricane late last night earlier than forecasted.

The National Hurricane Center upgraded the storm after data from a Hurricane Hunter mission found 80 mph winds within the system.

Last night’s forecast predicted maximum strength at 85 mph before weakening would begin.

However, this morning’s forecast now indicates Hurricane Isaias could strengthen to a 100 mph category 2 storm within the next 24 hours while over the very warm waters near the Bahamas with very low wind shear before beginning a slow weakening off Florida’s east coast, according to the NHC.

This morning’s forecast does not indicate a Florida landfall at this time.

Other tropical areas

Showers and thunderstorms associated with a small area of low pressure located a couple of hundred miles east-southeast of the Cabo Verde Islands have become less organized since yesterday, according to the NHC.

The system is moving northward toward less favorable environmental conditions and the chance of this system becoming a tropical depression is decreasing.

In the south central Atlantic, new westward-moving tropical wave located about 1,000 miles east of the Lesser Antilles is producing a limited amount of shower activity.

Some slow development of this system is possible while it turns northwestward over the western Atlantic by early next week.

Formation chance through the five-day forecast is low at 20 percent.