zeta is clinging to the variety of life it's being alotted in the marginal, quirky late season environment. the official has been adding to the projected life of the system as it persists, though it could wink out as fast as epsilon did on december 7th-8th or hang around for days and such changes aren't very predictable given what we know about the oddball thermodynamic environments that allow these off-season types. given that the convection tends to be a little more offcenter and deeper than what epsilon had, i'd say it will have a harder time sustaining. the prediction through january 2nd looks as good as any.
anyhow, as far as there being more offseason systems... calling the season done doesn't seem to ever be right, so might as well go ahead and predict three or four offseason systems to tide us over until our the hyper active month of may 2006 arrives... as predicting things to be quiet doesn't seem to carry any weight, calling them active might have the contrary effect? 2006 appears to be set up for la nina, and quite often those years don't really get going until some time in august anyway, so it's actually quite possible (eg. 1988, 1998, 2000, with an odd june storm in 1999 and 2001).
i'll believe it when i see it, though.
HF 0410z01january