MIAMI (BLOOMBERG)Tropical Storm Eta will hit the Florida Keys overnight, becoming the year's record 12th named storm to make landfall in the US. It's then set to drift west, build in strength, and make another run at the Sunshine State north of Tampa.
Eta will probably strike near the central Keys about midnight local time with winds of 113kmh, said Mr Paul Markert, a meteorologist with commercial forecaster Maxar. Once it passes through the Florida islands, it will likely become a Category 1 hurricane afterwards this week with winds of 120kmh.
"The centre of Eta will pass near or over the Florida Keys tonight and early Monday," the US National Hurricane Center said in an advisory issued at 10pm in New York (11am Singapore time on Monday).
The storm is bringing "heavy rainfall and life-threatening flash flooding to portions of south-eastern Florida."
Eta made landfall in Cuba early Sunday (Nov 8) with 104kmh winds and heavy rains. The storm killed more than 50 people across Central America the previous week and more than 100 others are missing after it struck that region as a major hurricane, according to the Associated Press.
If Eta makes landfall in the Florida Keys, or afterwards this week along the Gulf of Mexico coast, it will be the 12th storm to strike the US in 2020, adding to a record-breaking Atlantic hurricane season that's seen hundreds of deaths, billions of dollars in damage, and a total of 28 storms.
So several storms have formed that the hurricane centre used up all the names on the official list by mid-September and has had to use Greek letters to designate subsequent systems.
The official hurricane centre track forecast currently takes Eta on a backwards-question-mark-like path through the eastern Gulf of Mexico. Its threat to offshore oil and natural gas production will probably be low.
While Eta will certainly become a hurricane late Monday, it will weaken before it makes its potential second landfall along Florida's west coast.
The exact details of when and where that will happen could change, Mr Markert said.
For the US, Eta's destruction probably won't match the tragedy still unfolding across Central America. The US economic tally will probably be less than US$100 million (S$134 million) in insured losses, said Mr Chuck Watson, a disaster modeler for Enki Research.
Florida Governor Ron DeSantis has declared an emergency ahead of Eta. The tropical storm's meandering track could even mean a triple landfall for Florida, Mr Adkins said.
The first would be in the Keys, the second along the western coast, and then finally into the Florida Panhandle or northern part of the state.
In addition to Eta, forecasters are also watching another potential storm that has a 20 per cent of forming in the Caribbean, and a third in the central Atlantic that has a 30 per cent chance in the next five days, the hurricane centre said. If either of these storms form, 2020 would set the record for the most tallied in a single year.