Tropical Storm Beta

Oct 27, 2005 — MIAMI (Reuters) - Tropical Storm Beta formed off the Caribbean coast of Nicaragua on Thursday and was forecast to strengthen into a hurricane and drench Central America with potentially flooding rain, the U.S. National Hurricane Center said. Storm alerts were posted for the Nicaraguan coast and the adjacent islands. Forecasters said the storm could dump 15 inches of rain on western Panama, Costa Rica and Nicaragua, with isolated amounts up to 20 inches. At 8 a.m., Beta had top sustained winds of 40 mph (65 kph) and was about 135 miles east-southeast of Bluefields, Nicaragua. The storm was moving slowly northwest at four mph (six kph) in the warm Caribbean and was expected to strengthen into a Category 1 hurricane, with top winds of at least 74 mph (119 kph), before moving over the Nicaraguan coast by Saturday. Beta was the 23rd named tropical cyclone of the unrelenting and record-breaking Atlantic-Caribbean hurricane season. No. 22, named Alpha, broke the record for the number of storms set in 1933 and made 2005 the most active hurricane season since records began 150 years ago. Weather forecasters switched to the Greek alphabet for storm names after using up their annual list of 21 names for the season with Wilma, which was at one point the most intense hurricane ever recorded in the Atlantic basin. It ravaged Mexico's Yucatan Peninsula and southern Florida and killed 28 people in Florida, the Bahamas, Haiti and Mexico. The Atlantic hurricane season runs through November 30. Thanks to ABCnews.com for this story.