Florida braces for rain from Hurricane Eta, Theta moves away from US

By WRAL Severe Weather Center

Eta strengthened back into a hurricane on Wednesday but is unlikely to bring rain to North Carolina, according to WRAL meteorologist Elizabeth Gardner.

Currently off the coast of southwest Florida, Hurricane Eta is forecast to make landfall early Friday morning along the west coast of Florida, north of Tampa.

Eta could bring up to 5 inches rain to Florida in the next several days but is forecast to move away from the East Coast.

Theta, the season’s 29th named storm, will continue to move east away from the United States and is not expected to impact land.

Finally, a tropical wave over the Caribbean has a high chance of developing this weekend and could be named Iota, another first-time storm. It could track westward to Central America next week.

According to records, North Carolina has only felt impacts from a tropical system in November twice in the last 20 years.

Hurricane season ends Nov. 30.

Eta is the 28th named Atlantic storm this season, breaking the previous 2005 record for most named storms in a season. There has never been a tropical storm, or hurricane, named Eta in history.

Eta is the seventh letter of the Greek Alphabet, which is what weather forecasters use after all the 21 names for storms have been used up.