Hurricane Eta forms in the Caribbean Sea, making history

By WRAL Severe Weather Center

Hurricane Eta formed in the Caribbean Sea overnight and is expected to bring heavy rain, wind and storm surge to Central America.

When Eta developed into a tropical storm Saturday night, it was the first time the name had ever been used. There has never been a tropical storm, or hurricane, named Eta in history.

Eta is the 28th named Atlantic storm this season, tying the previous 2005 record for most named storms in a season.

The National Hurricane Center, in its 5 a.m. advisory, said Eta is a Cat. 1 hurricane with maximum sustained winds of 75 mph. Eta is expected to make landfall in Nicaragua early on Tuesday. The storm will likely bring flash flooding and heavy rain fall to Jamaica, the Cayman Islands and Central America.

Hurricane season doesn’t end until Nov. 30, which means we have one more month of storms left. November is usually a busy time for hurricanes, so we should expect to see more storms before the season ends.

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.

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