UPDATE: Hurricane Nate makes landfall as a Category 1

TOMORROW: Thunderstorms, wind gusts. High: 79.

» For a detailed forecast, visit The Atlanta Journal-Constitution weather page.

UPDATE [9:25 p.m.]: The National Hurricane Center said Saturday night that Nate is expected to make a second landfall along the coast of Mississippi and then pass over parts of Mississippi, Alabama and Tennessee. Forecasts also had the storm affecting the northwest part of Georgia as it weakened to a tropical storm.

UPDATE [8:31 p.m.]: Hurricane Nate makes landfall as a Category 1 near the mouth of the Mississippi River with winds of 85 mph, the Associated Press reported.

ORIGINAL STORY: The system everyone has been tracking is now known as Hurricane Nate, and it's getting stronger.

However, Hurricane Nate, now packing 90 mph winds in the Caribbean, is not expected to be as severe in metro Atlanta as was the previous hurricane.

“This is not Hurricane Irma,” Channel 2 Action News meteorologist Brian Monahan said Saturday morning. “This is a much weaker system.”

The hurricane, now a Category 1, is expected to make landfall late Saturday east of New Orleans, Monahan said. By then, it is forecast to be Category 2 with 100 mph winds, according to Channel 2.

Northwest Georgia and metro Atlanta should feel the full effects Sunday afternoon.

That likely will mean heavy rain and sustained wind of 15-30 mph, with gusts that could top 39 mph. So a tropical storm watch has been issued for most of metro Atlanta.

Attention, commuters: By Monday, the worst should be over.

So far, Saturday has been relatively free of effects from Nate. According to Monahan, there will be a high of 81 and a 20 percent chance of rain. Clouds will thicken as the hurricane gets closer.

About 4:45 p.m., the temperature was at 80 in Atlanta.