The Weather Channel
November 19, 2020
Hurricane Iota, the second Category 4 landfall in less than two weeks in Central America, unleashed destructive winds, more inundating rain and storm surge in storm-weary Nicaragua, Honduras, and neighbouring countries.
(MORE: Iota Tears Off Roofs, Floods Roads)
Iota made landfall with maximum sustained winds of 155 mph at 10:40 p.m. EST on Nov. 16 near the town of Haulover, Nicaragua, or about 30 miles south of Puerto Cabezas, the National Hurricane Center said. The landfall location of Iota was just 15 miles south of where Hurricane Eta made landfall as a Category 4 on Nov. 3.
Winds of 124 mph and damaged roofs were reported in Wilbi, Nicaragua, according to the National Hurricane Center.
Puerto Cabezas Airport in northern Nicaragua clocked a wind gust to 113 mph as Iota was making landfall.
Video posted in social media showed roofs being ripped off some homes and buildings in Puerto Cabezas.
Heavy damage was also reported on the Colombian islands of Providencia and Santa Catalina, east of the Nicaraguan coast, which took a battering from the eyewall of Iota as it was at Category 4 or 5 intensity.
It was estimated 98% of the infrastructure on Providencia, including the island’s hospital, was destroyed.
Flooding rainfall and mudslides were the biggest dangers for Central America, including areas that were devastated by Hurricane Eta’s heavy rain earlier in the month.
The National Hurricane Center forecast that parts of Honduras, Nicaragua, Guatemala and Belize would be soaked by 10 to 30 inches of rain from Iota.
Estimated rainfall from Hurricane Iota from Nov. 15-18, 2020. The heaviest rain is indicated by the red and pink contours.
The Twitter account for the National Police of Honduras showed flooding from Iota’s rainfall in several locations, including once again in the nation’s second-largest city, San Pedro Sula.
Flooding was also triggered in parts of Nicaragua, including in the nation’s capital city, Managua. Over 6.5 inches of rain fell in 24 hours at Augusto Cesar Sandino International Airport east of downtown Managua.
Iota was born as Tropical Depression Thirty-One on Nov. 13, then became a record-setting 30th named storm of the 2020 hurricane season later that afternoon.
Iota strengthened into a hurricane on Nov. 15 as it tracked through the southwest Caribbean.
(Data: NOAA/NHC)
Maximum sustained winds in Iota then jumped from 85 mph to 155 mph in the 24 hours ending 7 a.m. EST on Nov. 16. That easily met the criteria for the rapid intensification of a tropical cyclone, which is an increase in maximum sustained winds of at least 35 mph in 24 hours or less.
NOAA researcher Sam Lillo pointed out Iota was the third storm in the last two months to intensify by 100 mph in 36 hours. Prior to 2020, Lillo noted only eight other storms had done so in 169 years of records.
Iota was the 10th storm of the 2020 season to meet the criterion for rapid intensification. This tied 1995 for the most such rapid intensifiers in any single season since 1979, according to Tomer Burg, an atmospheric science Ph.D. student at the University of Oklahoma.
On Nov. 16, Iota became only the second Category 5 hurricane on record in November and the record latest-in-season hurricane ever to reach that intensity in the Atlantic Basin. The 1932 Cuba hurricane reached Category 5 intensity from November 5-8.
(MORE: Iota the 7th Category 5 Atlantic Hurricane in Past 5 Years)
Iota’s Nicaragua landfall marked the first time on record two major hurricanes – Category 3 or stronger – have made landfall in the country during the same hurricane season, much less only about two weeks apart. NOAA’s hurricane database only documented seven such Category 3-plus landfalls in Nicaragua prior from the mid-19th century through 2019.