Speedy Hurricane Zeta breaks several hurricane records Wednesday evening
Records Broken By Zeta
- Hurricane Zeta is the 5th storm to make landfall in Louisiana-- the most the state has ever seen in one season.
- Five landfalling storms in one U.S. state in one season is also a record.
- Zeta is the 11th named-storm to make landfall in the United States. Another record for a single season.
Zeta is also the third hurricane to make landfall in Louisiana this season. One that cannot end soon enough. What makes Zeta a little different that the last few storms this season is its forward speed. The storm is expected to accelerate to 45 mph per hour overnight.
This will give the storm little time to lose its powerful wind field as it zips northward.
What's Making Zeta "Zip"
A powerful trough of low pressure and along with a powerful jet stream (which is the same system responsible for our snow and Oklahoma's historic ice storm.)
The jet streak associated with steering Zeta is pushing 130+ mph ~30kft aloft.
The storm is expected to rocket from New Orleans to New York within the next 24 hours.
Zeta's Expected Impacts
As mentioned before, the forward speed of this storm system will allow a larger amount of people to be affected by the damaging winds of this storm system. It's essentially moving to quickly and won't have enough time to weaken before it does it's damage.
With over 100,000 already without power in Louisiana, and the expected wind field of this storm, I wouldn't be surprised to see over 1,000,000 without power by morning.
We can only hope this is the last high impact tropical event in an already unprecedented hurricane season.
-Luke
