Rare Tropical Storm Zeta

Rare Tropical Storm Zeta

Saturday, December 31, 2005; Posted: 4:02 a.m. EST (09:02 GMT)

Rare December tropical storm poses no threat to land

MIAMI (CNN) -- Tropical Storm Zeta, which formed in the Atlantic a month after the official end to the 2005 hurricane season, was becoming better organized Saturday, but posed no threat to land, according to the National Hurricane Center.

Zeta, the 27th named storm of 2005, formed Friday. As of 4 a.m. Saturday, it was about 1,040 miles southwest of the Azores Islands, with maximum sustained winds of near 60 mph. The storm was moving northwest at near 5 mph and was expected to turn toward the north-northwest later Saturday.

Zeta is the sixth letter of the Greek alphabet, used by forecasters since mid-October after they reached the end of their standard list of names. Zeta follows Epsilon, which became a Category 1 hurricane earlier this month in the same area, and also never posed a threat to land. (Updated 4:02 a.m.)

Copyright © 2005-2009 by Rev. Dr. Ricardo E. Nuñez. All Rights Reserved.

FAIR USE NOTICE: This site contains copyrighted material the use of which has not always been specifically authorized by the copyright owner. We are making such material available in our efforts to advance understanding of environmental, political, human rights, economic, democracy, scientific, and social justice issues, etc. We believe this constitutes a 'fair use' of any such copyrighted material as provided for in section 107 of the US Copyright Law. In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. Section 107, the material on this site is distributed without profit to those who have expressed a prior interest in receiving the included information for research and educational purposes. For more information go to: http://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/17/107.shtml. If you wish to use copyrighted material from this site for purposes of your own that go beyond 'fair use', you must obtain permission from the copyright owner.