Tropical Storm Eta forms in Caribbean, ties record for most named storms in season

2020 just won’t quit when it comes to the tropics.

On Saturday, the latest storm was named as Tropical Storm Eta formed in the Caribbean Sea. The 11 p.m. advisory from the National Hurricane Center reports the storm has maximum sustained winds of 40 mph and was heading west at 15 mph. It is 270 miles southeast of Kingston, Jamaica.

The Associated Press reports Eta is the 28th named Atlantic storm this season, tying the 2005 record for named storms. However, this is the first time the Greek letter Eta is being used as a storm name because in 2005, after the season ended meteorologists went back and determined there was a storm that should have gotten a name, but didn’t.

Hurricane season doesn’t end until November 30, which means we have one more month of storms left. And in 2005, Zeta formed in the end of December.

Eta is the seventh letter of the Greek Alphabet, which is what weather forecasters use after all the 21 names for storms have been used up.

There has never been a tropical storm, or hurricane, named Eta in history.

November is usually a busy time for hurricanes, so we should expect to see more storms before the season ends.

According to the National Hurricane Center, names are only given to tropical storms that have sustained wind speeds higher than 39 mph.