Subtropical Storm Alpha, First Greek Letter Storm, Makes Landfall In Portugal
MIAMI (CBSMiami) — Subtropical storm Alpha has made landfall in Portugal after becoming the first storm system, since 2005, to be named using a letter from the Greek alphabet.
Alpha is expected to be short-lived and will dissipate on Saturday.
Maximum sustained winds are near 45 mph with higher gusts.
What makes this storm significant is the name.
When Tropical Storm Wilfred formed Friday morning in the eastern Tropical Atlantic, it was the last proper name in the list of 2020 Atlantic Hurricane names.
Once there are no more names, the National Hurricane Center starts using the Greek alphabet.
The last time the Greek alphabet had to be used in an Atlantic hurricane season was in 2005, which had a record breaking 27 named storms, including Hurricanes Katrina, Rita and Wilma.
Alpha wasn't alone for long on the list of Greek alphabet names.
Early Friday evening, a depression in the Gulf of Mexico strengthened into Tropical Storm Beta, the 23rd named storm of the 2020 season, only 4 storms behind that record 2005 season.
The National Hurricane Center is also watching Tropical Storm Wilfred located south of the Cabo Verde Islands, Hurricane Teddy in the central Atlantic and two areas of concern in the far western Atlantic.
If and when there are more named storms this hurricane season, which by the way, doesn't officially end until November 30, the Greek names after Alpha and Beta are:
- Gamma
- Delta
- Epsilon
- Zeta
- Eta
- Theta
- Iota
- Kappa
- Lambda
- Mu
- Nu
- Xi
- Omicron
- Pi
- Rho
- Sigma
- Tau
- Upsilon
- Phi
- Chi
- Psi
- Omega
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