From Vox · Dylan Scott · · 2m
Hurricane Isaias arrives as US luck runs out
The first hurricane of fall is hitting the Gulf Coast after an unusually quiet season, but forecasters warn worse weather is coming.
In brief
The first hurricane of fall is hitting the Gulf Coast after an unusually quiet season, but forecasters warn worse weather is coming. Hurricane Isaias is striking the Gulf Coast as an unusually quiet hurricane season ends, while budget cuts leave the US less prepared for the severe weather forecasters expect this…
Category 3 hurricane approaching
Hurricane Isaias is expected to strike the Gulf Coast overnight as a Category 3 storm with sustained winds of one hundred twenty miles per hour. The storm threatens the Florida Panhandle, Alabama, and Mississippi.
Heavy rain expected near landfall
Weather forecasters anticipate between eight and twelve inches of rain in the areas near where the storm makes landfall, posing a threat to life and property for millions of Americans.
Unusually late start to season
Isaias breaks a more than one hundred year old record. October ninth is the latest date since nineteen oh five for the first Atlantic hurricane of the season to take shape.
US had unusual hurricane luck
Last year, no hurricanes reached the US mainland at all. August and September have historically been the busiest periods of hurricane season, but lately the pattern has shifted.
El Niño has suppressed storms
El Niño, a shift in global wind patterns occurring every two to seven years, moves warm water around the oceans and disrupts traditional weather patterns.
Severe weather expected in winter
Forecasters expect this year's El Niño to be historically bad. The worst weather is projected to arrive in December, with the southern half of the continental US expecting unusually rainy and stormy weather.
Budget cuts weaken disaster response
Trump's big beautiful bill cut funding for NOAA's weather forecasting and public alert programs by two hundred million dollars.Seventeen percent of FEMA's workforce left the agency in twenty twenty five amid the administration's DOGE purge.
Reduced capacity to handle storms
The cuts will serve as a crucial test of America's reduced capacity for predicting and responding to disasters as severe weather arrives this winter and spring.
In short
Hurricane Isaias is striking the Gulf Coast as an unusually quiet hurricane season ends, while budget cuts leave the US less prepared for the severe weather forecasters expect this winter.
