While Tropical Storm Eta continues to sit off the coast of Cuba, Subtropical Storm Theta is strengthening and has become the 29th named storm of the 2020 Atlantic hurricane season.
This breaks the 2005 record of 28 named storms, which included the infamous Hurricane Katrina. The 2005 season continued long after November 30th, ending with Tropical Storm Zeta in January 2006.
Theta is currently considered subtropical because it’s not a true warm-core system. Hurricanes and tropical storms are warm-core areas of low pressure because they contain warm layers of air from the surface to the top of the storm.
A subtropical or extratropical system is usually not vertically stacked like a hurricane and has some cold air in its circulation thus making a storm not completely tropical.
Here is the latest advisory on Theta from the National Hurricane Center. The good news with Theta is that it’s going to move east and stay away from the United States.
Now Eta continues to be a potential problem for Florida and the eastern United States. The latest advisory from the NHC has Eta maintaining tropical storm status all the way through the weekend.
Tropical Storm Eta is expected to weaken to a tropical depression just before landfall around the Florida panhandle. Parts of the Gulf coast could see up to 3.00” of rainfall as the storm moves inland. Iota is next up on the list.