2020 Hurricane Zeta upgraded to major storm

NEW ORLEANS – The official start of the 2021 Atlantic hurricane season is less than three weeks away, but last year’s hurricane season is still setting records.

The 2020 hurricane season was one that will not soon be forgotten with a record-setting 30 named storms across the Atlantic basin, more than double the historical average and bypassing the 2005 season that featured 28 named storms.

After the conclusion of each hurricane season, the National Hurricane Center pours through all of the data collected throughout the season and re-analyzes every storm. And recently, the NHC made an announcement about one of the final storms of the 2020 season.

On Oct. 28, 2020, Hurricane Zeta roared ashore in southeast Louisiana with the eye of the storm eventually tracking directly over New Orleans.

Shortly before making landfall, Hurricane hunters flew through the core of the cyclone and reported maximum sustained winds of 110 mph (95 knots). This is considered to be a high-end Category 2 hurricane on the Saffir-Simpson wind scale.

However, Zeta continued to strengthen in the two hours that transpired between the time that the plane flew through the storm and when landfall occurred.

During this small window, the NHC re-analysis found that Zeta’s pressure fell an additional 3 millibars (0.09 of an inch of mercury) and that the maximum sustained winds increased to 115 mph (100 knots).

“While a 5-knot change is typical for post-analysis best track intensity changes, this increase in Zeta’s peak intensity crosses the threshold from Category 2 to Category 3,” the NHC explained.

This upgrade makes Zeta the seventh major hurricane of the 2020 season, which ties the 2005 season for having the highest number of major hurricanes in a single season.

With a landfall of Oct. 28, Zeta now holds the record for the latest U.S. landfall of a major hurricane, according to Philip Klotzbach, a meteorologist at Colorado State University who specializes in tropical meteorology.

The Tampa Bay Hurricane of 1921 held the previous record for the latest U.S. landfall of a major hurricane. That hurricane moved ashore on Oct. 25.

The upgrade to a major hurricane may change the way that some perceive the 2020 season as a whole, but the overall impact from the storm remains the same.

“These Category 3 sustained winds were likely experienced over only a very small area at and near the coast near the landfall location, and this change in the estimated landfall intensity is of little practical significance in terms of the impacts associated with the storm there,” the NHC added.

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