The Category 1 hurricane Zeta, the 11th of the 2020 Atlantic hurricane season, has made landfall in Mexico’s Yucatan Peninsula, bringing with it maximum sustained winds of 80 mph, according to weather officials.
It made landfall late Monday night after strengthening into a hurricane earlier in the day, the USA Today said in a news report.
According to forecasters, Zeta is expected to hit the already-battered US Gulf Coast later this week.
Zeta is likely to re-strengthen as it moves over the southern Gulf of Mexico on Tuesday and the northern Gulf Coast on Wednesday, the forecasters added.
Ahead of the landfall, the government had issued a hurricane warning for the Yucatan Peninsula from Tulum to Dzilam, and a tropical storm warning was in effect for south of Tulum, west of Dzilam and Pinar del Rio, Cuba.
Meanwhile, residents in the US states of Florida and Louisiana, which is still recovering from the effects of hurricanes Laura and Delta, were urged to remain alert before Zeta approaches the US Gulf Coast.
Zeta is the 27th named storm of an already historic hurricane season, said the USA Today news report.
This year’s season has so many storms that the hurricane center has turned to the Greek alphabet after running out of official names.
Zeta is the furthest into the Greek alphabet the Atlantic season has gone.
There was also a Tropical Storm Zeta in 2005.
