Late on December 29, 2005, a tropical depression developed in the east-central Atlantic Ocean from a frontal trough and strengthened into a tropical storm early the next day. As this was more than four weeks after the official end of the season, the National Hurricane Center did not actually classify the system until after it had already become a tropical storm. The new bound storm originally moved to the northwest but stopped for a few hous late on December 31 before moving west. As Tropical Storm Zeta slowly gained strength, it had many characteristics similar to Hurricane Epsilon, like when the National Hurricane Center constantly forecasted that Zeta would weaken because of the high wind shear; but Zeta still held onto its strength, like Epsilon had done.