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Hurricane Isabel could make next week’s weather exciting for Lisa or Susie and I.

The following is excerpted from Foxnews.com:

…The storm had earlier been lowered to a Category 4 hurricane when its winds fell to 150 mph. It was reclassified as a Category 5 — the most intense rating — after a hurricane hunter plane flew into the eye for new measurements Saturday afternoon.

A hurricane hits the top of the Saffir-Simpson hurricane scale (search) when its winds reach 156 mph.

The slow-moving, powerful storm was still several days from land, and forecasters were not certain it would strike the United States. However, computer models predicted it would turn toward the Carolinas over the next five days.

“It’s not definite, but things are looking more ominous than yesterday for the East Coast,” National Hurricane Center (search) meteorologist Eric Blake said Saturday.

At 11 p.m. EDT, Isabel was centered about 350 miles north-northeast of San Juan, Puerto Rico and moving west-northwest at 12 mph. Forecasters expected it to continue that movement into Sunday.

Large ocean swells and dangerous surf conditions were forecast for the Leeward Islands (search) in the northeastern Caribbean. The U.S. State Department issued a travel warning advising tourists to avoid the Bahamas because of the storm.

The long-range forecast placed Isabel farther north than previously thought. Now, experts at the National Hurricane Center in Miami say it could be centered roughly 100 miles south-southeast of Maryland’s Chesapeake Bay by Thursday evening. But hurricanes can be unpredictable, and long-range forecasts have large possibilities for error.

The full story is available by clicking here.