Meteorologists were forced to break out the Greek alphabet Friday to name Atlantic storms for only the second time ever after the 2020 hurricane season blew through their usual list, ending on Tropical Storm Wilfred.

Tropical Storm Beta was packing maximum sustained winds of 40 miles (65 kilometers) per hour in the Gulf of Mexico, some 280 miles off the mouth of the Rio Grande, the National Hurricane Center said.

It is expected to reach hurricane intensity over the weekend, according to the Miami-based center.

At the same time, subtropical storm Alpha was forming on the other side of the Atlantic, some 120 miles off the coast of Portugal. With maximum sustained winds of 45 miles per hour, it is not expected to intensify, the NHC said.

The storms were named after letters of the Greek alphabet, after Tropical Storm Wilfred formed earlier Friday, exhausting the list of names predetermined by the World Meteorological Organization (WMO) for tropical storms.

The list consists of 21 male and female names that alternate in alphabetical order and change every year. The WMO chooses names that are easily recognizable in a region where several languages are spoken, so no names starting with X, Y or Z are chosen.

In the unusual event that the list is used up, the WMO identifies storms by letters of the Greek alphabet: alpha, beta, gamma, delta… as has been the case this year, which has seen an unusually active hurricane season.

"Get out the Greek alphabet for the rest of 2020," the NHC said in an update on Wilfred.

Meteorologist MJ Ventrice of The Weather Company tweeted that "this is the second time in history we'll be using the Greek Alphabet."

The first time, he added was in 2005, when Hurricanes Katrina and Wilma devastated Louisiana and Florida, respectively.

Those names, as well as Maria, Irma and Harvey, have been retired permanently from the WMO lists due to the devastation they caused.

Meanwhile, Hurricane Teddy has reached Category 4, the second-highest level. Teddy is swirling around the central Atlantic and could pass near Bermuda, just a week after Hurricane Paulette.

Two killed in hurricane-like storm in Greece
Athens (AFP) Sept 19, 2020 –

Two people were found dead and another person was missing on Saturday after central Greece was lashed by a rare hurricane-like storm known as a "medicane".

Hundreds of people had to be rescued from flooded buildings as heavy rain and high wind wrecked homes, shops and warehouses in regions north of the capital Athens.

Mediterranean cyclone Ianos forced flights and ferries to be cancelled on Friday as it barrelled across Greece's western islands. By Saturday afternoon it was heading south towards Crete but losing strength.

Emergency teams were still searching for a boat carrying 55 migrants on Saturday after receiving a distress signal a day earlier, but the coast guard told AFP the vessel may have changed direction after receiving no help.

The city of Karditsa about 300 kilometres (190 miles) north of Athens was badly hit overnight, with mudslides, falling trees and power cuts.

Local reports said a man was found dead on his farm in the area.

In nearby towns, a woman was found dead in her inundated house and another was missing after her car was swept away by a flooded river, firefighters said.

Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis expressed his condolences over the deaths and promised that all affected regions would receive support from the state.

Medicanes — a portmanteau of Mediterranean and hurricane — are a rare phenomenon only categorised by experts over the past four decades, according to Kostas Lagouvardos, director of research at the Athens Observatory.

"Mediterranean cyclones or hurricanes have tropical characteristics like those in the Atlantic, but they often have a smaller volume and are less intense," he told AFP.

The last storm on this scale hit Greece two years ago, killing two people.