Delta expected to approach Gulf as major storm
The storm-weary Gulf Coast is in the cone of concern for the sixth time in the 2020 hurricane season.
Hurricane Delta, the earliest 25th-named storm ever to form, formed Monday near Jamaica and is expected to rapidly strengthen, the National Hurricane Center said.
Louisiana, Mississippi and a sliver of the Florida Panhandle are in the forecast path. Delta is expected to hit the area as a strong hurricane late this week, bringing storm surge, wind and rain. As of Monday, no watches or advisories were in effect for the U.S.
The hurricane center said Delta could grow into a major hurricane, meaning a Category 3, with 115 mph winds, by Wednesday.
As of 8 p.m. Monday, Delta was about 245 miles south of Jamaica traveling west at 8 mph with maximum sustained winds of 75 mph. Tropical storm-force winds extend 70 miles from the storm’s center. Hurricane-
winds extend 15 miles from the storm’s center, and tropical storm-force winds extend up to 70 miles fromthe center.
The Gulf Coast was hit twice in September. Tropical Storm Beta came shore near Port O’Connor, Texas, on Sept. 21, and Hurricane Sally made landfall on Sept.
16 near Gulf Shores, Ala.
In late August, the region was pummeled in a 72-hour period by Hurricane Laura and Tropical Storm Marco. Laura came a shore in coastal Louisiana at Category 4 strength. Marco, which had briefly been a hurricane in the Gulf of Mexico, made landfall as a tropical storm near the mouth of the Mississippi River.
Hurricane Hanna made landfall in southern Texas in late July. And Tropical Storm Cristobal made a second landfall on the Louisiana coast on June 7.
“For some areas they’re still picking up the pieces after Laura, they’re still picking up the pieces after Sally,” said Dennis Feltgen, spokesman for the National Hurricane Center. “We’ve been through it in Florida where we have multiple storms in the same year so we know what that’s like here and it can be a very difficult situation.”
October storms often threaten Florida as they move north and then northeastward. None of the nine storms that hit the continental U.S. this year made landfall in Florida.
“Storms don’t move by themselves, they move by the pattern that is set up at the time,” Feltgen said. “We’ve been in this pattern where we get a number of these systems that have been moving through the Caribbean and then they’re gonna start gaining some latitude as they get into the western Caribbean and that puts them in the Gulf of Mexico. And once you’ve got a storm in the Gulf of Mexico, it’s very rare for them to get outof the Gulf without hitting something.”
Hurricane warnings and watches are in effect for parts of Cuba and tropical storm warning sand watches are in effect for parts of the Cayman Islands and Cuba.
“Delta is expected to be a major hurricane when it nears the Yucatan Peninsula,” the hurricane center said.
Forecasters warned of potentially life-threatening flooding and mudslides in the hurricane’s path.
Delta broke the record for the earliest 25th named storm ever to form, eclipsing the previous mark of Nov. 15, 2005, when Tropical Storm Gamma briefly formed in the Caribbean Sea.
If Delta maintains its current forecast track, it would break a record by becoming the 10th named storm in a hurricane season to make landfall in the continental U.S.
Delta is also chasing the record 2005 hurricane season, which had 27 named storms. In that year there were 14 named hurricanes and seven major hurricanes — three of which (Katrina, Rita and Wilma) — reached Category 5 status. On Dec. 30, 2005, Tropical Storm Zeta formed as the 28th named storm of the year, setting the all-time record.
Delta is also forecast to interact with Tropical Storm Gamma (not to be confused with 2005’s Gamma), which was 135 miles west of Cozumel, Mexico on Monday afternoon. Both systems will be within 500 miles of each other into Tuesday morning, the hurricane center’s forecast tracks show.
Gamma wasmoving west at 5mph and “gradual weakening is forecast, and Gamma is expected degenerate to a post-tropical remnant low tonight and dissipate over the northern portion of the Yucatan peninsula Wednesday,” according to the hurricane center.
Tropical Storm Gamma came ashore Saturday on the northeastern Yucatan Peninsula in Mexico, with 65 mph winds.
This has been a busy hurricane season with nine named storms making landfall in the U.S., which ties the record number established in 1916. Beta became the first storm named after a letter of the Greek alphabet to make landfall in the continental U.S. when it hit Texas on Sept. 21.
After Delta, the next storms would be named Epsilon, Zeta and Eta.
Because 2020 is a LaNiña year, forecasters expect lateseason storm activity to increase in October and possibly even carry into November. Hurricane season officially ends Nov. 30.