South Florida Sun-Sentinel (Sunday)
Tropical depression expected to be 28th named storm
A tropical depression formed Saturday in the central Caribbean Sea and is expected to reach hurricane strength by the time it strikes theCentralAmerican coast.
The storm, which would be named Eta, threatens to strike the region of Nicaragua and Honduras next week with top winds of 85 mph, according to the 5p.m. Saturday update from the National Hurricane Center. Hurricane watches were expected to go up as soon as Saturday night for parts of the CentralAmerican coast.
It would be the 28th named storm of the season, a record-breaking number that would force forecasters to resort for the first time to the seventh letter of the Greek alphabet to give it a name.
It is expected to reach tropical storm strength Saturday night and hurricane strength byMonday.
“There is a risk of storm surge, hurricane- force winds, and heavy rainfall for portions of Nicaragua and Honduras,” the hurricane center said. “...Through Thursday afternoon, heavy rainfall from the system will likely lead to flash flooding and river flooding across portions of Jamaica, the Cayman Islands, and Central America, which could result in landslides in areas of higher terrain.”
The depression, producing topwindsof35mph, was moving generallywestward at about 15 mph toward the western Caribbean Sea. Jamaica, Honduras, and Nicaragua are inits path. It’s expected to produce heavy
rainfall across portions of Jamaica and southern Hispaniola through the weekend, forecasters said.
“This is exactly what we look for this time of year on the tail end of these colds fronts, they get down into the Gulf or the southwest Atlantic, the Bahamas and Cuba and places like that,” said Bob Smerbeck, senior meteorologist for AccuWeather.
Already, the 2020 hurricane season is tied with 2005 for the most named stormsin a year. IfEta forms as expected, this year will also tie 2005 for the most number of total storms in a season.
A reanalysis of the 2005 season identified a previously unknown system that briefly became strong enough to earn a name — but it was too late to give it one.
There’s still one month left in the hurricane season.
Meanwhile, the remnants of post- tropical cyclone Zeta zipped well off the northeast U.S. coast after pummeling storm-battered Louisiana andkilling at least six people across the south.
Power outages occurred across six states from Louisiana to the south Atlantic seaboard, leaving at least 2.5 million in the dark, according to the Associated Press.
In Louisiana, a man was electrocuted by a downed power line inNew Orleans, according to a Louisiana coroner.
Four people died in Alabama and Georgiawhen trees fell on homes, which included two people who were left pinned to their bed, the AP reported.
Andin Biloxi, Miss., Leslie Richardson, 58, drowned when he was trapped in rising seawater after taking video of the raging storm. Richardson and another man escaped a floating car and desperately clung to a tree before his strength “just gave out,” Harrison County coroner Brian Switzer said.
Zeta wa s the record-breaking 11thnamed stormtomake aU.S. landfall during the 2020 hurricane season, nearly all of them along the storm-ravaged Gulf Coast.
The 2020 hurricane season was predicted to be above normal by the National OceanicandAtmospheric Administration in May, but updated in August to extremely active.
Colorado State’s Tropical Meteorology Project team issued its first forecast for the 2020 hurricane season on April 2, when it forecast 16 named storms, eight hurricanes and four major hurricanes, an above-aver
age season.
An average season, measured by standards established between 1981 and 2010, has 12 named storms, six hurricanes and three major hurricanes, defined as a Category 3 or higher on the Saffir-Simpson scale.
WhileFlorida southof the Panhandle escaped virtually unscathed in 2020, Louisiana was brutalized by five namedstorms— Hurricanes Laura, Delta, and Zeta, and Tropical Storms Cristobal andMarco.