Tropical Storm Eta: What Alabama Can Expect

BIRMINGHAM, AL — With some of the southern counties of Alabama still recovering from Hurricane Zeta, another storm is making its way slowly up the Gulf of Mexico. Tropical Storm Eta is expected to approach the Florida Gulf coast this weekend, but will likely have weakened to a tropical depression at that time.

The latest National Hurricane Center forecast shows Tropical Storm Eta was packing sustained winds of 70 mph in the southeast Gulf of Mexico early Wednesday morning and is expected to briefly become a hurricane before weakening again Wednesday night. Landfall is now forecast on the Florida west coast north of Tampa Bay Thursday.

"I have little confidence in the long-range track forecast due to its seeming dependence on the intensity, and the wide spread in the guidance," Eric Blake, a forecaster at the National Hurricane Center, said in a statement Tuesday morning. "Model spread remains wide, and the forecast could change as the weekend gets closer. But confidence is fairly high that the system will weaken late this week as it ingests dry air and moves over cooler water in the northern Gulf."

"Eta will not affect Alabama or the central Gulf Coast, other than rip current danger today and Thursday from Gulf Shores to Panama City Beach," meteorologist James Spann said.