Tropical Storm Zeta Maintains Strength in Atlantic
USA: January 4, 2006


MIAMI - Tropical Storm Zeta maintained its strength over the open Atlantic on Tuesday as the 27th named storm of a record-breaking hurricane season drifted slowly westward.

 


Zeta, a laggard storm that formed a month after the Nov. 30 official end of the 2005 Atlantic and Caribbean Basin hurricane season, was about 1,395 miles (2,250 km) east-northeast of the northern Leeward Islands by 10 a.m. EST (1500 GMT), the US National Hurricane Center said.

The Miami-based center said the storm bore maximum sustained winds of 65 mph (100 kph).

Zeta capped a record hurricane season that forced forecasters to choose storm names from the Greek alphabet after exhausting their annual list of 21 names.

The previous record for most tropical storms was 21 in 1933. Fourteen of last year's storms strengthened into hurricanes, breaking the old record of 12 set in 1969.

Last year also saw the costliest hurricane on record when Katrina inundated New Orleans in August, killing at least 1,300 people and causing more than $80 billion in damage.

 


REUTERS NEWS SERVICE