The National Hurricane Center says Hurricane Isabel, now approaching Category Five status with 150 mile-per-hour sustained winds, “has a textbook appearance on visible and infrared satellite images.” They’re right. Check this action out:

This storm could be a serious problem for someplace along the East Coast late next week. Stay tuned, as they say.

They don’t call September 10 the peak day of the Atlantic hurricane season for nothing. Hurricane Isabel was upgraded to 145 mile-per-hour winds at 11:00 PM. About a week from now, it could be threat to anyplace along the U.S. East Coast, from Miami to Hatteras and perhaps further north. Stay tuned.

Hurricane Isabel has 125 mile-per-hour winds as of 5:00 PM, and is forecast to strengthen further tomorrow.

Isabel will probably become Category Four soon (maybe in a few minutes, when the 11:00 advisory comes out!), and could eventually get stronger than Fabian ever did. The forecast brings it up to 145 miles per hour in 24 hours — and the Hurricane Center admits, “the intensity forecast could easily be too low given that the outflow pattern is expected to continue to improve…the vertical shear is forecast to remain less than 10 kt…and Isabel will be moving over 28c and warmer [sea surface temperatures].”

(UPDATE: Yup, it became Category Four at 11:00 PM. Now it’s up to 135 mph.)

Even more importantly, Isabel, unlike Fabian, could impact the northern Caribbean islands — though it’s too soon to say for sure — and if so, that would put it on a course that’s more likely to eventually impact the U.S. East Coast than Fabian ever was. So, stay tuned.

Meanwhile, a new system, Tropical Depression 14, has formed off the African coast, and it’s forecast to be a hurricane within three days. Hey, they don’t call the first two weeks in September the peak of the hurricane season for nothing!

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