Tropical Storm Zeta Forms in Atlantic

AP ^ | 12/30/2005 | ADRIAN SAINZ

[Chanticleer]

MIAMI (AP) - Tropical Storm Zeta formed Friday in the eastern Atlantic Ocean, another installment in a record-breaking hurricane season that officially ended last month.

Zeta, the 27th storm of the season, formed Friday about 1,000 miles south-southwest of the Azores islands, according to an advisory posted on the National Hurricane Center's Web site. It posed no immediate threat to land.

The center said it would send out a full advisory later Friday. Tropical storms have winds of at least 39 mph.

It was not immediately known if Dec. 30 was the latest date for the formation of a tropical storm in the Atlantic. But earlier this month, Hurricane Epsilon became only the fifth hurricane to form in December in 154 years of record-keeping. Hurricanes form when their winds exceed 74 mph.

[Hillarys Gate Cult]

I thought it was Rush albums in chronological order.

IIRC, they will go to double Greek letters starting with Alpha Alpha.

[Chanticleer]

You obviously need the Official Friday Silliness Thread. Guaranteed to make you smile or puke -- possibly both.

[libstripper]

Is her first name Catherine and her last name Jones?

[Chanticleer]

That seems to be the consensus -- or fantasy.

[NautiNurse]

Thanks for the ping. Another wide-eyed and bushy-tailed storm watcher had a thread going before the NHC had their first advisory posted.

2006 hurricane season is looking ominous...

Tropical Storm Zeta

eeesh

[Cheburashka]

Tropical Storm Omega does have an apocalyptic ring to it....
---
It can't happen, since they start a new alphabet list on Sunday, January 1, 2006.

Of course, maybe next year about this time...

[Chanticleer]

Whoops! I searched but missed it.

How weird. Take down the Christmas tree, put up the plywood. :-P

[tiredoflaundry]

damn......... just damn..........

[ThanhPhero]

It's really a matter wo where the storms went, not so much how many there were. I guess Global Warming sucks them into the US Gulf Coast. When they truck around out in the Atlantic or Eastern Pacific they barely get mentioned, normally, This year and last year with several of them doing damage to the US, every tropical wave got breathless we are doomed coverage.

[Technocrat]

That's easy - cuss words. Start off with the mild ones.

Hurricane Damn
Hurricane Crap
Hurricane Jeez
Hurricane Flip

And so on, down to

Hurricane M....

[upchuck]

Global warming* - we're DOOMED!

*Which, of course, is President Bush's fault.

[isawitonline]

From the blog Philadelphia Weather:

http://philadelphiaweather.blogspot.com/2005/12/zeta-genesis.html

Years that featured December tropical or subtropical development since 1950 in the Atlantic Basin:

1953 -- TS 14
1954 -- Hurricane Alice #2
1975 -- STS #2
1984 -- Hurricane Lili
2003 -- TS Odette
2003 -- TS Peter
2005 -- TS Zeta

Hurricane Alice formed on December 30th and continued into early January of 1955. Zeta and Alice share the latest formation date in history in the Atlantic basin.

[Godzilla]

ping

[dirtboy]

It can't happen, since they start a new alphabet list on Sunday, January 1, 2006.

The way this season has gone, I wouldn't be too sure until the ball drops in Times Square tomorrow night.

[RedBloodedAmerican]

http://www.titanwalls.com

210 mph wind rating. they build in florida. that and a whole house propane generator and no hurricane will trouble you

[mattdono]

I have three words that make most of this stuff not seem so bad: whole house generator.

I live inland, but we are still suspetible to damages. But, the majority of the hassle is not having power

. So, after 2004, I put in a whole-house generator that runs off of propane gas. We have a gas line to the house and whenever the power goes out, the generator kicks in. No pouring gas, no pull starting, no decision on which "thing" should I keep plugged in.

And, it isn't too expensive. Course, at the time, it so happened that we were refinancing the house to take advantage of lower interest rates and the $7000 seemed well worth it. Whole-house generators sit on the side of the house and look like a slightly oversized A/C unit.

Considering that we are in the middle of an "active" Atlantic cycle, it seems like the investment is well worth it.

[metmom]

Could you put me on your hurricane/tropical storm ping list, too. They're always great. Thanks for all your hard work.

[metmom]

ROTFL!!!!

[PJ-Comix]

I just heard the latest update on the radio. Tropical Storm Zeta is still moving West. UNBELIEVABLE!!! Are we going to get ANOTHER hurricane? And in January???

[NautiNurse]

Zeta's center appears to be partially embedded in the central dense
overcast and Dvorak T-numbers from TAFB and SAB are 3.5...
corresponding to a 55-kt current intensity estimate.  An ssmis
image at 1116z depicted an eye-like ring...although this feature
appeared to be at mid-levels and displaced northeast of the
low-level center.  Upper-level outflow is fairly well defined over
the northern semicircle of the storm...and so far the strong winds
in the upper-tropospheric environment have not had much of a
disruptive influence.  An upper-level trough...that is currently
nearing Zeta...is predicted by the global models to split and this
could briefly create a more favorable environment for strengthening
today.  The official forecast will show no weakening until a little
later in the period...when strong upper-level northwesterlies in
the wake of the trough are expected to begin taking their toll on
Zeta.

Even with visible images...the center location is not that obvious
and the initial motion estimate is a somewhat uncertain 250/4.  A
mainly westward track...to the south of a low-level ridge...is
likely for the next day or so.  Thereafter a large low moving from
the western Atlantic is forecast to turn Zeta to the right.  The
official forecast follows this reasoning and is to the right of the
model consensus and leans toward the GFDL track.

 
Forecaster Pasch