An unusually active 2020 Atlantic hurricane season is now a record-tying one after Tropical Storm Eta formed in the Caribbean Saturday night.
Eta is on a track to remain well away from the U.S., instead moving west and forecast to become a hurricane early next week on a path toward Central America.
Early Sunday morning, the storm was located about 215 miles south of Kingston, Jamaica, and moving west at 15 mph, according to the National Hurricane Center. Maximum sustained winds were 40 mph with higher gusts.
On its current path, Eta will slow down before making landfall Tuesday morning along the coasts of Honduras and Nicaragua as a Category 1 hurricane before weakening into a tropical depression over Central America.
Eta could dump as much as 10-20 inches across areas of Honduras and Nicaragua, with maximum isolated totals of 30 inches that could result in life-threatening flash flooding and landslides, forecasters said.
Eta is the 28th named storm of the 2020 Atlantic hurricane season, tying the record for named storms in a season set in 2005 with still a month to go.
Hurricane season ends Nov. 30.
Information from the Associated Press was used in this report.
