Ike Could Be Category 4 Hurricane By Monday - Current Track, Models, Satellite Image + Updated Stats

The satellite image above shows what a dense powerful mass Ike is. Smaller than Hanna, but a lot meaner. Ike has maximum winds gusting at 140mph, sustained winds are also high at 115mph. Ike is also moving fairly rapidly westward at 16mph. The current track looks like it will put Ike in the Gulf of Mexico as a Cat 3 storm on Thursday next week. The current track looks like Ike might hit - wait for it - New Orleans. But Ike is still a long way away so anything can happen.

Advisory 21

IKE IS MOVING TOWARD THE WEST-SOUTHWEST NEAR 16 MPH...26 KM/HR. A CONTINUED WEST-SOUTHWESTWARD MOTION IS FORECAST DURING THE NEXT DAY OR SO...FOLLOWED BY A TURN TOWARD THE WEST ON SUNDAY. ON THIS TRACK...IKE IS EXPECTED TO PASS NEAR OR OVER ... THE SOUTHEASTERN BAHAMAS LATER TODAY OR EARLY SUNDAY...AND NEAR THE CENTRAL BAHAMAS AND THE NORTHERN COAST OF EASTERN CUBA ON SUNDAY NIGHT AND EARLY MONDAY.

MAXIMUM SUSTAINED WINDS ARE NEAR 115 MPH...185 KM/HR...WITH HIGHER GUSTS. IKE IS A CATEGORY THREE HURRICANE ON THE SAFFIR-SIMPSON HURRICANE SCALE. SOME FLUCTUATIONS IN STRENGTH ARE POSSIBLE DURING THE NEXT 48 HOURS...BUT IKE IS EXPECTED TO BE A MAJOR HURRICANE DURING THIS PERIOD.


Ike's track puts it on a course that out to worry New Orleans - at this point anyway. Those folks have enough to worry about.

clipped from www.msnbc.msn.com HOMESTEAD, Fla. - Ike is still far out in the Atlantic, but it's getting a close look from those who weathered 1992's Andrew, the devastating Category 5 storm against which all other Florida hurricanes are measured. "There's an obvious comparison. The thing's taking aim at deep South Florida," said Tad DeMilly, who as mayor of Homestead saw his city devastated in 1992. He was monitoring Ike's progress from his new home in Tennessee. Both Andrew and the Great Miami Hurricane of 1926 skirted north of Cuba and through the Bahamas before hitting Florida. That's a possibility for Ike, too. "I just hope it's not like Andrew," she said. "That was a long time without power." Andrew rapidly grew from a Category 1 to a Category 4 storm before it hit. Ike has already done that, quickly going from Category 1 to Category 4 on Wednesday before dropping in strength.