As it moves northwest, then north and then northeast by land, it will weaken in a tropical storm and then into a depression. Tropical Storm Zeta is expected to strengthen to a Category 1 hurricane and make landfall on the Yucatan Peninsula on October 27. Hurricane conditions are expected to begin in late October 26 and authorities have issued a hurricane warning from Tulum to Rio Lagartos. ETA is heading to Central America and is expected to land on Nicaragua and affect Honduras and other countries closer to it. If the predictions are accurate, the new depression will develop on the Yucatan Peninsula, placing the cities of Cancun and Tulum in the midst of the storm.
A skeleton of a 12,000 year old teenager found A skeleton of a 12,000 year old girl has been found inside a huge underground chamber north of the city of Tulum, in the eastern part of the Yucatan Peninsula in Mexico. About half of the hurricanes and cyclones that have hit South America this century occurred in September. La Niña conditions generally lead to relatively calm hurricane seasons in the eastern and central Pacific as a result of colder than average ocean temperatures and higher wind shear. From Tulum to Cancun, tourist-dependent communities still drenched by the remnants of Tropical Storm Gamma could bear the brunt of Delta.
NOAA, in its Eastern Pacific perspective, called for a 70% probability of 10 to 17 named storms, with 4-8 expected to become hurricanes, including 0-3 major hurricanes. It emerged in the Gulf of Mexico as a tropical storm, but it was expected to regain the strength of the hurricane before it made landfall south of New Orleans on Wednesday night. If a hurricane hit the Mexican Caribbean directly, visitors would have to wait for severe delays in returning to their homes, possibly weeks, while governments dealt with infrastructure damage and other logistical paperwork. So far, no research has been published showing a change in the length of the hurricane season in the Eastern Pacific.
Although Belize's hurricane season is theoretically the same as in the rest of the Caribbean region, eight of the 12 most significant storms of this century occurred in August and October. The system could be near or with hurricane force when it reaches Mexico's Yucatan Peninsula on Saturday night. In some ocean basins, climate change can inhibit early season genesis events by decreasing these other factors necessary for a hurricane to begin. A strengthening tropical storm Zeta is expected to become a hurricane Monday as it heads toward the eastern end of Mexico's resort-dotted Yucatan Peninsula, and then likely heading towards a possible landing on the central U.
Tourists walk along the beach as the end of Hurricane Zeta makes landfall in Playa del Carmen, Mexico, early Tuesday, October. Agatha is likely to become the strongest hurricane ever recorded in the Pacific at the beginning of the year, as well as the strongest hurricane ever recorded to make landfall as far east along Mexico's Pacific coast.
