Tropical Storm Zeta moves across Atlantic
12/31/2005, 10:31 a.m. ET
By ADRIAN SAINZ
The Associated Press

MIAMI (AP) — Tropical Storm Zeta moved across the Atlantic on Saturday, a day after it tied a record for the latest developing named storm in an already-infamous hurricane season.

Although the National Hurricane Center said Zeta was not expected to become a hurricane or threaten land, its development was a surprise because it came a month after the official end of the season on Nov. 30.

The 27th named storm of the season, Zeta was located about 1,060 miles southwest of the Azores, the National Hurricane Center reported at 9:30 a.m. EST Saturday.

Zeta had maximum sustained winds near 60 mph and was moving toward the west near 5 mph. Forecasters expected the storm to gradually weaken beginning Saturday.

The six-month season featured a record 14 hurricanes, including Hurricane Katrina, which devastated Louisiana and Mississippi in August in the most costly disaster in U.S. history. The season also saw forecasters exhaust their list of 21 proper names and begin using the Greek alphabet to name storms for the first time.

Zeta tied one other storm for the latest developing named system since record keeping began in 1851, said Greg Romano, a National Weather Service spokesman. Tropical Storm Alice developed Dec. 30, 1954, and later became a hurricane before dissipating Jan. 5.

Romano said Zeta just made the cut to be counted for the 2005 season because storms developing after December apply to the following season.

Earlier this month, Hurricane Epsilon became only the fifth hurricane to form in December in 154 years of record keeping — though Romano said some storms could have fallen through the cracks before technology such as satellites was available to help find and track tropical systems.


For some reason this just completely blow's my mind. I know it's not going to become a hurricane, but still...A flippin' tropical storm in almost January. I know this isn't the first. I hate to say this, because I don't want to be a doomy, and gloomy...However, I have a feeling this year (2006) is going to be just as bad...I hope not, but it wouldn't shock me.