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Zeta Becomes a Hurricane Menacing Mexico and U.S. Gulf Coast
(Bloomberg) -- Zeta strengthened to a hurricane as it bore down on the Mexican cities of Cozumel and Cancun, where it was forecast to dump heavy rain before turning north to threaten the U.S. Gulf Coast from Louisiana to Mississippi with another direct hit.
Zeta will make landfall in a couple of hours, bringing hurricane conditions and a dangerous storm surge, according to an advisory from the National Hurricane Center. It will hit the Yucatan Peninsula, a region that suffered widespread flooding from Hurricane Delta only weeks ago. The storm’s maximum sustained winds are 80 miles (129 kilometers) per hour, making it a Category 1 hurricane on the five-step Saffir-Simpson scale.
“It will likely cross the Yucatan as a hurricane,” said Dan Pydynowski, a forecaster with AccuWeather, Inc. Zeta will then hit Louisiana “as a hurricane or a very strong tropical storm.”
Zeta is the 27th named storm in a supercharged Atlantic hurricane season, just one short of the record reached in 2005, when Hurricane Katrina devastated New Orleans. So many storms have formed this year that the hurricane center has run out of official names and is using Greek letters to designate systems.
The threat to the Gulf Coast has triggered a storm surge, as well as a hurricane watch to be posted. Surge, which happens when a system pushes the ocean higher as it comes ashore, could wash over coastal areas from Louisiana to the Florida Panhandle. Hurricane-strength winds may affect a smaller area from Morgan City, Louisiana, to the Alabama-Mississippi state line, the center said.
In addition, Zeta is expected to bring heavy rain from the northern Gulf Coast into the Appalachian Mountains and mid-Atlantic states through Thursday.
The U.S. has been particularly hard hit, with Hurricanes Isaias, Laura, Hanna, Sally and Delta all hammering the coastline, causing billions of dollars in damage. A handful of tropical storms have struck the U.S. as well. Zeta would be the record 11th storm to come ashore in the contiguous U.S. this year, and if it makes landfall in Louisiana, it will be the fifth time that state has been hit this season.
Chevron Corp. and BHP Group have already begun pulling non-essential personnel off oil and gas platforms in the Gulf. Noble Corp. moved its Globetrotter II rig out of the way, while Equinor ASA plans to shut production at its Titan platform.
Nearly 16% of oil production and 6% of natural gas has been shut in across the Gulf, according to the Bureau of Safety and Environmental Enforcement.
The disruptions will likely be short lived because Zeta is moving quickly, said Matt Rogers, president of Commodity Weather Group LLC.
Closer to the U.S. coast, Zeta will encounter cooler water and wind shear that will tear at its structure, likely keeping it from strengthening and perhaps even weakening it, said Elizabeth Palumbi, a meteorologist with commercial forecaster Maxar.
While some storms, including Isaias and Fay, hit the East Coast, the majority of this season’s systems struck the Gulf Coast between Texas and Florida. That includes Laura and Delta, which both came ashore near Cameron, Louisiana, providing a double-dose of misery for residents in the western part of the state.
A typical Atlantic hurricane season only spins up 12 storms. The six-month season theoretically ends on Nov. 30, but a number of storms formed before its official start date of June 1 this year, and some meteorologists think they could keep coming into December.
Environmental indications point to the potential for a few more storms to develop in the Atlantic during November, which would push 2020 over the 2005 record, said Jim Rouiller, lead meteorologist at the Energy Weather Group.
“It is not over,” Rouiller said. “Zeta is not going to be the end.”
(Updates with landfall details in second paragraph.)
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