Tropical Storm Eta dramatically shifts course again. What you need to know.
Hurricane models are now agreeing that Tropical Storm Eta will likely make a second landfall this weekend on the northwest coast of Florida, removing all but a sliver of the Mississippi Gulf Coast in Jackson County from the warning cone.
“All of the guidance is now in good agreement on a broad, deep-layer trough moving eastward across the south-central and southeastern United States, which will erode the subtropical ridge to the north of Eta that has been impeding Eta’s poleward (northward) progress the past couple of days,” the Tuesday afternoon forecast discussion from the National Hurricane Center says.
The afternoon forecast shifted about 150 nautical miles east of Tuesday morning’s advisory track, when the Mississippi Gulf Coast sat squarely in the warning cone.
The storm was moving at 7 mph late Tuesday afternoon in the northern Gulf off the northwestern tip of Cuba with maximum sustained winds of 60 mph, down from 70 mph earlier in the afternoon.
Eta is expected to trek north, northeast through Wednesday, then turn to the northeast Thursday, continuing to soak South Florida from offshore.
The NHC says Eta could be near hurricane strength by Wednesday night or Thursday, with gradual weakening that should begin by Thursday evening. Eta is expected to be a tropical storm at landfall, then quickly weaken into a tropical depression.
The NHC also is monitoring a tropical depression that has formed in the Caribbean, as Eta did. The tropical depression has a 40% chance of forming into a tropical storm over the next two days.
Meanwhile, Tropical Storm Theta is spinning in the Atlantic and made 2020 the busiest hurricane season on record with 29 named storms. The previous record was 28 named storms in 2005. However, no U.S. landfall is expected from Theta.
This story was originally published November 10, 2020 at 8:36 AM.
