44 hours before Hurricane Isabel made landfall on the Outer Banks of North Carolina, the National Hurricane Center issued tropical storm watch for the coastline from Little Egg Inlet southward into the Mid-Atlantic. A day later, the watch was extended northward to Sandy Hook. When Isabel was 26 hours from making landfall, the watches were changed to tropical storm warnings, and 10 hours before it struck land the National Hurricane Center issued a tropical storm warning for the remainder of the New Jersey coastline. The National Hurricane Center also briefly issued a hurricane watch for the New Jersey coastline. While over the western Atlantic Ocean as a Category 5 hurricane, forecasters predicted Isabel would move northwestward and within five days be at a position 170 miles (275 km) south of Cape May as a 115-mph (185-km/h) major hurricane. By four days before the hurricane struck land, at least one computer model predicted Isabel would strike New Jersey.