Hurricane Isaias reached Category 3 strength over record-warm Gulf of Mexico waters before weakening slightly and making landfall near Destin in Florida’s Panhandle as a high-end Category 2 hurricane with 105 mph winds late on October 9. National Hurricane Center advisories and aircraft reconnaissance showed the center crossing the coast around 0130 UTC October 10 within the hurricane warning area stretching from Mississippi to the Florida Panhandle. Steering currents between an upper trough and subtropical ridge produced the observed north-northeast track, while increasing southwesterly shear limited further intensification before landfall. Updated model consensus, including Google DeepMind ensembles, narrowed the most likely crossing to the Alabama-Florida border region, aligning with official forecasts and trader-implied probabilities. Post-landfall weakening to post-tropical status by October 10 reduced uncertainty for resolution criteria based on sustained hurricane winds at coastal crossing.