Tropical Storm Gamma forms in Caribbean, May Hit Florida

MIAMI — Tropical Storm Gamma, a record 24th cyclone in an Atlantic hurricane season that has barely paused for breath, formed off the coast of Honduras on Friday and was expected to curve toward south Florida by the beginning of next week.

Gamma, named like its two predecessors Alpha and Beta from the Greek alphabet after the official list of 2005 storm names was exhausted, was 40 miles north of Limon, Honduras, and 190 miles east-southeast of Belize City, Belize, by 4 p.m. EST (2100 GMT), the U.S. National Hurricane Center said.

The poorly defined storm had top sustained winds of 40 mph (65 kph), and was moving erratically toward the west-northwest at 5 mph (7 kph).

But the hurricane center’s forecast predicted Gamma would curve toward the northeast as it neared the coast of Belize and Mexico’s Yucatan peninsula over the weekend before skirting western Cuba and aiming for southern Florida.

The storm was not expected to reach hurricane strength, but its projected path would follow that of Hurricane Wilma, which left 6.5 million people without electricity in south Florida after coming ashore on the state’s lower Gulf coast October 24.

The 2005 hurricane season, which runs until November 30, has broken all records with 24 named storms. Thirteen of those became hurricanes with winds of at least 74 mph (119 kph).

Wilma at one point became the strongest hurricane ever observed in the Atlantic basin in terms of its minimum central pressure. The hurricane pounded the Mexican resort of Cancun for three straight days.

Hurricane Katrina devastated New Orleans at the end of August, killing more than 1,000 people in Louisiana and Mississippi, while Hurricane Rita also ranked as one of the strongest storms on record before slamming ashore near the Texas-Louisiana border a few weeks after Katrina.

In October, Hurricane Stan killed up to 2,000 people in Central America after flash floods and mudslides washed away whole villages.

Hurricane experts say intensified storm activity is expected to continue in the Atlantic for up to 20 more years because of a natural swing in climatic conditions. Global warming may also be increasing the average intensity of storms, some climatologists say.

The hurricane center said Gamma was expected to produce up to 10 inches of rain in Belize, up to 15 inches

on the Yucatan peninsula and 12 inches in parts of Honduras.