Morning Express with Robin Meade

Isaac is now a hurricane with winds of 75 mph, according to the National Hurricane Center in Miami. Officials warn it should be taken very seriously.

President Obama said Tuesday that Gulf Coast residents need to listen to local officials and follow their directions, including if they tell you to evacuate.

Isaac and Katrina are two different storms, but they share some unsettling similarities: 

• The path of Isaac just came away from the western Florida coastline Monday morning and is churning up the Gulf of Mexico. Katrina did the same thing.
   
• Isaac is moving to the west-northwest and should eventually steer to the northwest and head for the Louisiana/Mississippi coastline Tuesday night. Look at Katrina’s ultimate path: it did the same thing.
   
• It appears that Isaac will make landfall late Tuesday night or early Wednesday, August 29. Katrina made landfall near Buras, Louisiana on … August 29, seven years ago.
   

READ MORE: Isaac makes way toward Gulf Coast

Gulf Coast residents from Florida to Louisiana are being told to evacuate as Tropical Storm Isaac begins to track across the Gulf of Mexico.  Nearly 9,000 residents who live in Jean Lafitte, Crown Point and Barataria in Louisiana are under a mandatory evacuation order. 

The storm has been veering west since slamming Haiti and soaking Cuba.

Oh boy. I just got tapped to emcee the Crohn’s and Colitis Foundation’s festivities at the Las Vegas Rock ‘N Roll Half Marathon this December 4. I am honored to do it, and it’s a lot of fun. The problem is I’m way out of running shape since last year when I did it. I look like the Stay-Puft Marshmallow Man minus the snappy sailor suit over here! Anyway, it’ll be great and I’ll blog more about it along with some training updates so you can share in my pain.

The weather has turned interesting for the lower 48. A big winter-type storm has plowed intot he West Coast, and the rain has been heavy from CA to NV/OR/WA/ID and now over to the Four Corners. The snow has been steadily piling up above 7K’elevation to 1 to 2 feet in the Sierra, Cascades, NV and UT Mountains. Winter storm watches have been issued for Western CO for the night and tomorrow too. I’ll have the latest forecast.

For the first time this season I came to work with a coat. Found $1.32 in change in the pockets! Nice start to the day, it bought me ¼ cup of a grande moch-fashizzle alpa-chino at Starbucks.

Cold and dry air has been blasting southward all weekend in the East and South, behind the old storm that is anchored over the NE. This is the big wind field that caused all the turbulence for the fliers this weekend. It’ll produce more rain/low clouds and wind today for the NE and Mid Atlantic before it finally gets the boot Wednesday afternoon. Showers are falling in OH and MI right now too, and some of that is mixing with snow in the highest elevations of WV this morning. Once you pull away from there, it’ll be dry and warm to about UT and AZ. A few showers will develop today and that may affect you in Las Vegas too.

A weather pattern shift is finally going to take place today for the MW and NE. That stubborn, slow-moving storm that has dumped heavy rain for days on the region will get the bum’s rush out the door to the East by a sharp cold front dropping down from Canada.

Check out the map. The brown solid lines are isobars (lines of equal surface air pressure), the green lines are forecasted rainy spots, and you can see the blue cold fronts and red warm fronts. That cold front over WI to KS is the one that will boot the Low (Red L) from it’s perch over Ontario!