United States

By Alex Sosnowski, Expert Senior Meteorologist

August 31, 2012; 2:00 AM

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Workers remove a large tree, Monday, Sept. 15, 2008, in Cincinnati, Ohio, that fell onto a home when high winds from the remnants of Ike swept through the area the day before. (AP Photo/Al Behrman)

While Isaac will continue to weaken through the end of the week moving inland, damaging gusts could reach southern Missouri and the Branson area.

Tropical Rainstorm Isaac is likely to retain some sort of identity and circulation well inland of the Gulf Coast with the size of the overall system playing a big role.

According to Severe Weather Expert Henry Margusity, "Strong gusts of wind near and east of the center of circulation are possible hundreds of miles inland through the end of the week."

While the overall coverage of damaging winds will decrease as Isaac moves inland, there could be pockets where downed trees and power lines occur through northern Mississippi, northern Louisiana Thursday and Arkansas and southern Missouri Thursday night into Friday.

Margusity does not expect damaging winds to the extent of another iStorm, Ike in 2008.

"Ike became hooked in with a strong jet stream from the southern Plains to the Ohio Valley and was able to transport some of the powerful high winds from aloft down to the surface in the form of damaging gusts," Margusity said.

The jet stream is well removed from Isaac, as indicated by the very slow movement of the system. The jet stream is likely to remain near the Canada border through the weekend.

A larger version of the latest forecast track map for Isaac (with times in EDT) can be found on the AccuWeather Hurricane Center.

By the time Isaac gets close to the jet stream, the system will have greatly dissipated.

There will be a continued heavy rain possibility with Isaac in some drought-stricken areas of the Plains and Midwest. However, some of the rain may fall too fast for small streams to absorb, but this is only likely in a small fraction of the region.

"People should still keep an eye on the system even though an eventual downgrade to a tropical depression and a non-tropical system will occur," Margusity added.

Locally strong thunderstorms from Isaac could reach into the Ohio Valley and Northeast days ahead. However, a widespread damaging wind event through the Ohio Valley is not likely.