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Storms That Hit

NHC AL282020 · Atlantic basin

Hurricane Zeta (2020)

October 24, 2020 – October 30, 2020

Data: NOAA NHC HURDAT2 and NOAA SPC tornado and hail reports, through 2025 · Updated

Hurricane Zeta peaked at Category 3 with 115 mph sustained winds and passed within 75 miles of 1,509 US cities, 205 of them while still at hurricane strength.

Zeta in the record

HURDAT2 tracks Zeta for 6 days, from October 24, 2020 to October 30, 2020. Its first position, at 18.4°N 82.6°W, records it as a tropical depression; its last, at 39.5°N 71.7°W, as an extratropical cyclone. It reached tropical-storm strength on October 25, hurricane strength on October 26 and major-hurricane strength on October 28. Its peak was 115 mph (100 knots), Category 3, on October 28, and its lowest central pressure was 970 millibars on October 28. It spent about 42 hours at hurricane strength. HURDAT2 marks a landfall within 50 miles of a US city on this site: on October 28 at 115 mph (Category 3), 13 miles from Chauvin, LA. It has one more landfall in the record farther from the cities here. Its centre passed within 75 miles of 1,509 US cities, in 13 states and territories, most in Virginia (319) and Alabama (223), between October 28 and October 29. The strongest pass was 114 mph (Category 3) 54 miles from Patterson, LA; the centre came closest to New Orleans, LA, less than a mile away. 205 of the cities had it at hurricane strength at the closest point, 11 at major-hurricane strength. It reached more US cities than 94% of the 737 storms on this site, and ranks 2nd of the 14 storms of 2020 here.

Peak strength
Category 3

115 mph

Cities within 75 mi
1,509
At hurricane strength
205

when closest

States
13
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Cities Zeta passed near, strongest first

Louisiana (93)

and 33 more

Mississippi (82)

and 22 more

Alabama (223)

and 163 more

Georgia (165)

and 105 more

Tennessee (122)

and 62 more

North Carolina (204)

and 144 more

Virginia (319)

and 259 more

Maryland (150)

and 90 more

New Jersey (64)

and 4 more

South Carolina (40)

Delaware (32)

West Virginia (14)

District of Columbia (1)

Other storms of the 2020 season

  • ArthurTropical storm · 15 cities
  • BerthaTropical storm · 64 cities
  • CristobalTropical storm · 276 cities
  • FayTropical storm · 885 cities
  • DouglasCategory 4 · 43 cities
  • HannaCategory 1 · 44 cities
  • IsaiasCategory 1 · 2,213 cities
  • LauraCategory 4 · 327 cities
  • MarcoCategory 1 · 6 cities
  • SallyCategory 2 · 191 cities
  • BetaTropical storm · 49 cities
  • DeltaCategory 4 · 169 cities
  • EtaCategory 4 · 240 cities

All hurricanes and tropical storms →

About this record

The track is the National Hurricane Center's best-track record, revised after the season with every observation available. Strength at a city is the sustained wind on the track at the closest point, not the wind that city measured.