Watch: Hurricane Delta Begins Pelting Cancun as a Dangerous Category 4 Storm

Hurricane Delta began its vicious approach into Cancun and many other parts of Mexico's Yucatan Peninsula on Tuesday night. Winds from the Category 4 storm have already begun whipping the tourist destination at 155 mph and greater in some places.

Just 24 hours ago, Delta slowly crept from tropical storm status into a Category 1 storm. Within the next 16 hours, it roared into a Category 4 monster. Here it is bashing Cancun as night falls on Tuesday. The storm is expected to batter the area for nearly 24 hours before it ventures northward into the Gulf of Mexico and threatens a Gulf coast of the United States that has already been bashed during the 2020 hurricane season.

The wind gusts of Hurricane Delta have reached more than 155 mph, which is close to the 157 mph needed to become a Category 5 storm. The storm itself has maximum sustained winds of 145 mph, per the latest advisory.

Hurricane Delta is expected to weaken to a Category 3 storm by Wednesday as it moves over the Mexican peninsula, but the warm waters of the Gulf of Mexico could help it regain strength over the next 2-3 days as it approaches the U.S. coast.

Delta's final cone path is uncertain at the time, but models have it making landfall from the Texas-Louisiana border at the Sabine Pass all the way east to the western Florida panhandle.

The National Hurricane Center advises residents in those areas to begin making hurricane preparations as soon as possible.

Delta is the 25th named storm this season in the Atlantic basin, and 2020 is already three shy of the busiest storm season on record. The record was set in 2005. However, in that season, there had only been 20 named storms by October 5, which makes 2020 a season on pace to break the old record.

The 2020 Atantic storm season has been so busy that the list of planned names has already been exhausted, at which point the next named storms take on the letters from the Greek alphabet. The next named storms would be: Epsilon, Zeta, Eta, Theta and Iota. Alpha and Beta have already fizzled out after reaching their maximum strengths.

Greek or planned, the southern coast of the United States probably doesn't want any part of tropical systems the remainder of this hurricane season. Hurricane Hanna hit south Texas, Hurricane Laura lashed southwest Louisiana and southeast Texas as a powerful category 4 storm in late August, and Hurricane Sally battered the coastline from New Orleans to Pensacola, Florida as a high-level Category 2 storm in September.

Residents from Lake Charles, Louisiana to Orange Beach, Alabama are still recovering from a difficult storm season. Delta most likely will not ease their tensions.

Meanwhile, residents and tourists in Cancun, Mexico are taking shelter tonight.