WASHINGTON | Tropical Storm Zeta became a hurricane on Monday and is heading toward Mexico before reaching the United States this week, the Miami-based National Hurricane Center (NHC) said.
The hurricane, accompanied by winds of 130 km / h, was located on Monday afternoon 170 km southeast of Cozumel, Mexico.
The NHC expects the eye of the hurricane to approach the northern Yucatan Peninsula during the day or evening on Monday and then the northern Gulf of Mexico on Wednesday.
Rains are expected until Tuesday in Yucatan, the Cayman Islands and part of Cuba; then they are expected to fall on eastern Mississippi, Alabama and northern Georgia on Tuesday evening and Wednesday.
Bad weather could also be felt from Louisiana to Florida.
Louisiana Governor John Bel Edwards declared a state of emergency as a precaution.
“What’s good and bad is that we’ve had a lot of experiences this year” with storms and hurricanes, he said at a press conference.
Hurricanes Laura and Delta have indeed hit the Louisiana coastline in roughly the same spot recently.
Hurricane Delta had previously swept across southeastern Mexico, uprooting trees and downing power lines on the Yucatan Peninsula.
The hurricane season in the Atlantic this year is unusually rough, and several records have been broken.
As the surface of the oceans warms, hurricanes are becoming more powerful, according to scientists, who predict an increase in the proportion of category 4 and 5 cyclones, the most destructive.