MIAMI — Tropical Storm Eta briefly regained hurricane strength southwest of Florida on Wednesday, as forecasters warned of storm surge, strong winds and heavy rainfall along the state’s Gulf Coast.
Floridians found themselves bracing for the storm to make another landfall just days after it soaked the central part of the Florida Keys and its strongest winds battered the Upper Keys and Miami-Dade and Broward Counties over the weekend.
“It’s really been a crazy storm to watch,” Gov. Ron DeSantis of Florida told the Weather Channel on Wednesday.
The hurricane had weakened to a tropical storm and was about 65 miles west-southwest of St. Petersburg at 4 p.m. Wednesday, with maximum sustained winds of 70 miles per hour, according to the National Hurricane Center. Earlier on Wednesday, the storm had regained strength as a Category One hurricane with maximum sustained winds of 75 miles per hour.
The storm was expected to slowly weaken as it approached the state’s Gulf Coast, and to rapidly weaken after making landfall on Thursday, the Hurricane Center said.
Eta is the 28th named storm and the 12th hurricane of an unusually busy Atlantic hurricane season, which started June 1 and ends Nov. 30. The storm’s formation tied a record set in 2005 when Hurricanes Katrina, Rita and Wilma devastated parts of the Gulf Coast.
This year, as in 2005, so many storms grew strong enough to be named that meteorologists turned to the Greek alphabet after exhausting the list of names maintained by the World Meteorological Organization.
Tropical Storm Theta, this season’s record-breaking 29th named storm, will likely begin to weaken as it moves over the eastern Atlantic over the next few days, the Hurricane Center said.
Forecasters were predicting up to five feet of life-threatening storm surge from Tropical Storm Eta along Florida’s Gulf Coast, including around Tampa Bay. Portions of the coast could feel tropical-storm-force winds Wednesday evening and early Thursday.
Heavy rainfall is forecast across western Cuba and South Florida and is likely to spread north across portions of western and northern Florida into Friday.
Several universities in the storm’s path have already canceled classes on Thursday, including the University of Florida in Gainesville and the University of South Florida in Tampa. The public school district in Hillsborough County, which includes Tampa, and the Hernando School District also announced that they would be closed on Thursday.
The storm has already caused deadly flooding and mudslides in parts of Central America after striking Nicaragua as a Category 4 hurricane.
Researchers have said that global warming is changing storms, with warmer ocean temperatures contributing to this year’s hyperactive hurricane season.
The Hurricane Center warned that flooding was still possible in South Florida on Wednesday, even after the storm soaked the region with more than 13 inches of rain. The storm turned some South Florida streets into shallow rivers on Monday and left hundreds of thousands of people without electricity.
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November 12, 2020 at 01:04AM
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Eta Targets Florida, Again - The New York Times
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