As if the existential dread of waiting on the results of the 2020 presidential election wasn’t enough, it now appears that a Tropical Storm will hit most of the Florida peninsula in the few days.
According to the National Hurricane Center’s 7 a.m. EST update, Tropical Storm Eta made landfall as a Category 4 hurricane in Nicaragua yesterday, reaching a maximum wind strength of 150 mph, and is now expected to weaken to a tropical depression before zigzagging north to the Caribbean Sea.
As of Wednesday morning, the storm is traveling at a speed of 8 mph about 90 miles west of Puerto Cabezas, Nicaragua, and is forecast to eventually strengthen back to tropical storm status before heading towards Cuba and Florida.
While the exact path is unknown, a large swath of Florida is well within the storm’s current cone of uncertainty, including Tampa Bay and most of Central Florida. As of now, Eta— which rhymes with "beta"—is forecast to approach the southwestern coast of Florida late Sunday or early Monday morning.
Eta is now the 12th hurricane and the 28th named storm of the year, which ties the 2005 season record for 28 named storms.
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This article appears in Oct 29 – Nov 4, 2020.