HOLY COW

ASSOCIATED PRESS
Dec 30, 11:55 AM EST

Tropical Zeta forms in Atlantic Ocean month after season ended

By ADRIAN SAINZ
Associated Press Writer

MIAMI (AP) — Tropical Storm Zeta formed Friday in the eastern Atlantic Ocean, another installment in a record-breaking hurricane season that officially ended last month.

Zeta, the 27th storm of the season, formed Friday about 1,000 miles south-southwest of the Azores islands, according to an advisory posted on the National Hurricane Center’s Web site. It poses no immediate threat to land.

The center said it would send out a full advisory later Friday. Tropical storms have winds of at least 39 mph.

The 2005 Atlantic storm season, which ended Nov. 20, included 14 hurricanes.

It was not immediately known if this is the latest a tropical storm has formed in the Atlantic. But earlier this month, Hurricane Epsilon became only the fifth hurricane to form in December in 154 years of record keeping. Hurricanes form when their winds exceed 74 mph.

The epic Atlantic hurricane season caused forecasters to use up their list of 21 proper names and forced them to use the Greek alphabet to name storms for the first time. Alpha, Beta, Gamma, Delta, and Epsilon had been used before Zeta – and Eta would be next.

One of the hurricanes, Katrina, destroyed large portions of Louisiana and Mississippi last August in the most costly disaster in U.S. history. Three others – Dennis, Rita and Wilma – affected Florida, and the four storms caused $7.5 billion in insured damage and were blamed for 63 deaths in the state.

Forecasters have said that hurricane seasons are going to be more active than usual for at least another decade – and possibly as long as 50 years.