Tropical Storm Eta makes landfall in Florida ... again
By
Alex Sosnowski, AccuWeather senior meteorologist
Published Nov 11, 2020 5:23 PM EDT
|
Updated Nov 12, 2020 4:20 PM EDT
Hours after regaining hurricane force on Wednesday morning as it started moving northeastward over the Gulf of Mexico, Eta weakened into a tropical storm just west of Florida early in the afternoon. Prior to daybreak, the storm was preparing to make its second landfall in the state.
Eta’s second time crashing ashore in the United States occurred near Cedar Key, Florida, around 4 a.m. EST on Thursday. Maximum sustained winds were estimated at 50 mph at time of landfall. On Sunday night, also a tropical storm, Eta made its first U.S. and Florida landfall on Lower Matecumbe Key.
Ahead of and during landfall Eta flooded dozens of streets and knocked out power to tens of thousands from Wednesday to Thursday morning.
The outer fringes of rain and gusty winds lashed at the west coast of the Florida Peninsula on Wednesday from Marco Island to near Cross City. AccuWeather National Reporter Jonathan Petramala shared a video on Twitter of surf beginning to come up ahead of Eta in St. Petersburg Beach Wednesday morning.
Even though Eta hit with the wind intensity of tropical storm on the Saffir-Simpson Hurricane Wind Scale, AccuWeather meteorologists say Eta was 1 on the AccuWeather RealImpact™ Scale for hurricanes, which factors in a broad range of the impacts, including flooding rain, storm surge, wind and economic losses, while the Saffir-Simpson Hurricane Wind Scale categorizes hurricanes based solely on maximum sustained winds.
The last time that a hurricane impacted part of Tampa was when Irma rampaged up the Sunshine State in 2017, delivering a glancing blow as a weakened Category 1 hurricane to eastern parts of the city. Still, Irma technically made a direct hit and the storm caused damage, power outages and a rare spectacle for those who had not evacuated ahead of the storm -- a blowout tide that emptied parts of Tampa Bay.
Similar to Irma, Hurricane Charley in 2004 was initially forecast to track into the Tampa area, but the dangerous Category 4 storm, packing 150-mph winds, suddenly veered northeastward, sparing the region and making landfall about 90 miles farther the south in Cayo Costa, Florida, instead.
Prior to Hurricane Irma, the last time Tampa Bay sustained a direct hit by a hurricane was in October 1921, nearly a full century ago, even before hurricanes were given names. Known as "the forgotten nightmare,” according to the National Weather Service, the hurricane killed at least eight people and left behind widespread destruction
A satellite loop showing Tropical Storm Eta bringing heavy rains to Tampa Bay, St. Petersburg and other places up and down Florida's west coast on Wednesday. Nov. 11, 2020. (NOAA / AccuWeather)
(NOAA / AccuWeather)
A general storm surge of 1-3 feet occurred in the vicinity of Eta as it approached the Florida west coast into early Thursday. A storm surge between 3 and 4 feet occurred in Tampa Bay and caused bay waters to spill ashore.
While maximum winds with Eta have already occurred and were between 60 and 80 mph near the center, tropical storm force winds of 40-60 mph can continue to occur along the upper east coast of Florida and part of the Georgia coast as Eta approaches the Atlantic. Winds this strong can cause property damage, and tear off poorly-constructed roofs.
Tornadoes and waterspouts could still spin up within the spiral bands of the storm. Forecasters emphasized the importance of heeding all warnings, noting that some of the tornadoes may be hard to see as they could be rain-wrapped.
"In addition to the strong wind gusts, there is the ongoing potential for tornadoes to be spawned over the Florida Peninsula and waterspouts to develop along the shoreline of the landmass through Thursday," according to AccuWeather Senior Meteorologist Bill Deger.
As of 7 a.m. EST Thursday, there have been no confirmed reports of tornadoes in the U.S. from Eta.
Eta has a history of unleashing torrential rainfall in Florida. Eta dumped up to 18 inches on South Florida Sunday into Monday, causing widespread flooding of streets and low-lying locations in the Miami and Fort Lauderdale, Florida. The storm made its first landfall with 65-mph winds on Lower Matecumbe Key, Florida, on Sunday night.
The heaviest rain into Thursday from Eta from during the storm's second trip to Florida will continue to avoid areas hit the hardest by torrential downpours earlier this weeks The bulk of the rain in Florida has already fallen from Eta. Between 4 and 8 inches of rain has been observed in the Tampa Bay area as of 7 a.m. Thursday.
But, even in some of the central and eastern parts of the Florida Peninsula, downpours could lead to localized flooding as locally strong wind gusts could develop in the storm's outer rainbands. Cities such as Winter Haven, Orlando, Ocala and Gainesville, Florida, could even face sporadic power outages.
As Eta pushes farther inland, the system will trek across the northern part of the Florida Peninsula on Thursday. After that, it is expected to push offshore of Florida's upper Atlantic coast by Thursday night.
Eta is forecast to gradually lose wind intensity as it moves over land, but gusty and locally damaging winds are forecast to spread as Eta moves along over the peninsula.
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"Even though Eta has been torn up by wind shear and will weaken due to the frictional effects of land interaction, there is a chance that Eta may regenerate and strengthen while moving over the warm waters of the Gulf Stream during Thursday night and Friday," according to AccuWeather's top hurricane expert, Dan Kottlowski.
AccuWeather forecasters have already been monitoring Eta for weeks and warning that it could be a concern for quite some time. Eta was first named a tropical storm on Saturday, Oct. 31, making 2020 tie the 2005 record for most named systems to develop in one hurricane season.
Theta, another system that formed out in the central Atlantic Monday evening, since broke that record when it became the 29th organized tropical system of the year.
And the season isn’t over yet. Meteorologists are keeping an eye on another disturbance that could brew in the Caribbean Sea by the weekend. The system could head toward Central America, potentially threatening renewed flooding for areas recently devastated by Eta. The next tropical storm to develop will be given the name Iota.
It has been more than a week since Eta's calamitous impacts in Central America where it produced devastating flooding and mudslides, killing over 50 people in Guatemala alone. Eta struck Nicaragua as a Category 4 storm, only the fifth storm to make landfall at that intensity or stronger in the nation’s history.
The Atlantic hurricane season doesn’t officially end until Nov. 30 — and there could be tropical concerns well into December this year.
Keep checking back on AccuWeather.com and stay tuned to the AccuWeather Network on DirecTV, Frontier and Verizon Fios.
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News / Hurricane
Tropical Storm Eta makes landfall in Florida ... again
By Alex Sosnowski, AccuWeather senior meteorologist
Published Nov 11, 2020 5:23 PM EDT | Updated Nov 12, 2020 4:20 PM EDT
Hours after regaining hurricane force on Wednesday morning as it started moving northeastward over the Gulf of Mexico, Eta weakened into a tropical storm just west of Florida early in the afternoon. Prior to daybreak, the storm was preparing to make its second landfall in the state.
Eta’s second time crashing ashore in the United States occurred near Cedar Key, Florida, around 4 a.m. EST on Thursday. Maximum sustained winds were estimated at 50 mph at time of landfall. On Sunday night, also a tropical storm, Eta made its first U.S. and Florida landfall on Lower Matecumbe Key.
Ahead of and during landfall Eta flooded dozens of streets and knocked out power to tens of thousands from Wednesday to Thursday morning.
The outer fringes of rain and gusty winds lashed at the west coast of the Florida Peninsula on Wednesday from Marco Island to near Cross City. AccuWeather National Reporter Jonathan Petramala shared a video on Twitter of surf beginning to come up ahead of Eta in St. Petersburg Beach Wednesday morning.
Even though Eta hit with the wind intensity of tropical storm on the Saffir-Simpson Hurricane Wind Scale, AccuWeather meteorologists say Eta was 1 on the AccuWeather RealImpact™ Scale for hurricanes, which factors in a broad range of the impacts, including flooding rain, storm surge, wind and economic losses, while the Saffir-Simpson Hurricane Wind Scale categorizes hurricanes based solely on maximum sustained winds.
The last time that a hurricane impacted part of Tampa was when Irma rampaged up the Sunshine State in 2017, delivering a glancing blow as a weakened Category 1 hurricane to eastern parts of the city. Still, Irma technically made a direct hit and the storm caused damage, power outages and a rare spectacle for those who had not evacuated ahead of the storm -- a blowout tide that emptied parts of Tampa Bay.
Similar to Irma, Hurricane Charley in 2004 was initially forecast to track into the Tampa area, but the dangerous Category 4 storm, packing 150-mph winds, suddenly veered northeastward, sparing the region and making landfall about 90 miles farther the south in Cayo Costa, Florida, instead.
Prior to Hurricane Irma, the last time Tampa Bay sustained a direct hit by a hurricane was in October 1921, nearly a full century ago, even before hurricanes were given names. Known as "the forgotten nightmare,” according to the National Weather Service, the hurricane killed at least eight people and left behind widespread destruction
A satellite loop showing Tropical Storm Eta bringing heavy rains to Tampa Bay, St. Petersburg and other places up and down Florida's west coast on Wednesday. Nov. 11, 2020. (NOAA / AccuWeather)
A general storm surge of 1-3 feet occurred in the vicinity of Eta as it approached the Florida west coast into early Thursday. A storm surge between 3 and 4 feet occurred in Tampa Bay and caused bay waters to spill ashore.
While maximum winds with Eta have already occurred and were between 60 and 80 mph near the center, tropical storm force winds of 40-60 mph can continue to occur along the upper east coast of Florida and part of the Georgia coast as Eta approaches the Atlantic. Winds this strong can cause property damage, and tear off poorly-constructed roofs.
Tornadoes and waterspouts could still spin up within the spiral bands of the storm. Forecasters emphasized the importance of heeding all warnings, noting that some of the tornadoes may be hard to see as they could be rain-wrapped.
"In addition to the strong wind gusts, there is the ongoing potential for tornadoes to be spawned over the Florida Peninsula and waterspouts to develop along the shoreline of the landmass through Thursday," according to AccuWeather Senior Meteorologist Bill Deger.
As of 7 a.m. EST Thursday, there have been no confirmed reports of tornadoes in the U.S. from Eta.
Eta has a history of unleashing torrential rainfall in Florida. Eta dumped up to 18 inches on South Florida Sunday into Monday, causing widespread flooding of streets and low-lying locations in the Miami and Fort Lauderdale, Florida. The storm made its first landfall with 65-mph winds on Lower Matecumbe Key, Florida, on Sunday night.
The heaviest rain into Thursday from Eta from during the storm's second trip to Florida will continue to avoid areas hit the hardest by torrential downpours earlier this weeks The bulk of the rain in Florida has already fallen from Eta. Between 4 and 8 inches of rain has been observed in the Tampa Bay area as of 7 a.m. Thursday.
But, even in some of the central and eastern parts of the Florida Peninsula, downpours could lead to localized flooding as locally strong wind gusts could develop in the storm's outer rainbands. Cities such as Winter Haven, Orlando, Ocala and Gainesville, Florida, could even face sporadic power outages.
As Eta pushes farther inland, the system will trek across the northern part of the Florida Peninsula on Thursday. After that, it is expected to push offshore of Florida's upper Atlantic coast by Thursday night.
Eta is forecast to gradually lose wind intensity as it moves over land, but gusty and locally damaging winds are forecast to spread as Eta moves along over the peninsula.
CLICK HERE FOR THE FREE ACCUWEATHER APP
"Even though Eta has been torn up by wind shear and will weaken due to the frictional effects of land interaction, there is a chance that Eta may regenerate and strengthen while moving over the warm waters of the Gulf Stream during Thursday night and Friday," according to AccuWeather's top hurricane expert, Dan Kottlowski.
AccuWeather forecasters have already been monitoring Eta for weeks and warning that it could be a concern for quite some time. Eta was first named a tropical storm on Saturday, Oct. 31, making 2020 tie the 2005 record for most named systems to develop in one hurricane season.
Theta, another system that formed out in the central Atlantic Monday evening, since broke that record when it became the 29th organized tropical system of the year.
And the season isn’t over yet. Meteorologists are keeping an eye on another disturbance that could brew in the Caribbean Sea by the weekend. The system could head toward Central America, potentially threatening renewed flooding for areas recently devastated by Eta. The next tropical storm to develop will be given the name Iota.
It has been more than a week since Eta's calamitous impacts in Central America where it produced devastating flooding and mudslides, killing over 50 people in Guatemala alone. Eta struck Nicaragua as a Category 4 storm, only the fifth storm to make landfall at that intensity or stronger in the nation’s history.
The Atlantic hurricane season doesn’t officially end until Nov. 30 — and there could be tropical concerns well into December this year.
Related:
Keep checking back on AccuWeather.com and stay tuned to the AccuWeather Network on DirecTV, Frontier and Verizon Fios.
Report a Typo