JACKSONVILLE, Fla. – At 5 p.m. the center of Tropical Storm Zeta was crossing the Louisiana coast.
The center of Hurricane Zeta was located near latitude 29.2 North, longitude 90.6 West. Zeta is moving toward the north-northeast near 24 mph.
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A faster north- northeastward motion is expected through tonight followed by an even faster northeastward motion on Thursday and an east-northeastward motion early Friday.
On the forecast track, the center of Zeta will make a second landfall along the Mississippi coast this evening, and then move across the southeastern and eastern United States on Thursday.
Maximum sustained winds are near 110 mph with higher gusts.
Weakening will occur while Zeta moves over the southeastern United States on Thursday. Hurricane-force winds extend outward up to 35 miles from the center and tropical-storm-force winds extend outward up to 150 miles.
TRACKING THE TROPICS: Interactive tracking map
Zeta broke the record of the previous earliest 27th Atlantic named storm that formed Nov. 29, 2005, according to Colorado State University hurricane researcher Phil Klotzbach. It now becomes the 11th hurricane of the 2020 season.
This year’s season has so many storms that the hurricane center had to turn to the Greek alphabet after running out of official names for only the second time in history.