Hypothetical Question....????

[DJJordan]

With the forecast track right now..... and the extent of the strength of Isabel, ..... Hypothetically...... If the storm maintaines at least a Cat 3 or 4 status upon landfall and moves towards the northwest towards Lake Erie or Ontario..... I'm thinking the impacts could be widespread in the area from Detroit eastward...... any thoughts???? This is assuming it will take a while for Isabel to wind down once hitting land....and of course depending on speed of movement.

[JetMaxx]

DJ, a lot depends on how fast Isabel moves after passing north of the Gulf Stream into water temperatures that quckly fall into the lower 70's....from that moment on Isabel will be weakening....

The reason that hurricane Hugo brought 100 mph wind gusts to Charlotte and Opal brought 70 mph gusts to my area near Atlanta? they were both moving fast...which carries the strong, even hurricane force winds hundreds of miles inland sometimes.

When cat-4 hurricane Hazel struck the Carolinas in 1954, she was moving north at almost 50 mph....and there were 80-100 mph wind gusts all the way to Canada...and a 113 mph gust in New York City's Central Park..

IF Isabel is a severe hurricane near Cape Hatteras and Virginia Beach moving NNW at 30-40 mph or more, any city it passes west of....be it Buffalo, Detroit, or Syracuse will likely see some damaging winds....50-70 mph, and possibly over hurricane force in gusts.

One note: the last couple of NHC advisories have indicated a more northward motion to the hurricane after it makes landfall....so it may be New York City, Philly, Albany Burlington, and other areas of western New England that sees the worst winds inland.