Is the 2020 Atlantic hurricane season saving its most intense storm for last?
Hurricane season is winding down in fewer than four weeks, but that hasn’t deterred Hurricane Eta from becoming one of the strongest tropical cyclones of 2020. Nearly 25 weeks after Tropical Storm Arthur began the elongated 2020 tropical season, Eta’s eyewall began pushing ashore just after noon on Tuesday.
Eta’s slow track toward the Nicaragua coast on Tuesday also meant increased coastal impacts as the outer bands of the storm lashed marshy areas on the outskirts of the country.
The rapid ramp-up from tropical storm strength to Category 4 wind speeds in 24 hours gave residents of Central America little time to prepare for what would eventually tie the season’s strongest storm — Hurricane Laura — at its peak. Although it would weaken slightly before landfall, Eta was whipping maximum sustained winds of 150 mph at its peak, just shy of Category 5 classification (winds of 157 mph or greater).
The eye of dangerous major Hurricane Eta became less noticeable on satellite images as it churned just offshore of Nicaragua on Tuesday morning, Nov. 3, 2020. (CIRA at Colorado State/GOES-East)
By Tuesday morning, the storm had already caused widespread power outages and triggered flooding in some of the country’s poorest regions, according to Nicaraguan officials.
Upon reaching tropical storm status over the weekend, Eta was made the 28th named storm system of the season, tying a record set by the infamous 2005 season for most named systems in a single year.
On top of that, Eta became the strongest Greek-letter named storm in history as well. The National Hurricane Center (NHC) uses the Greek alphabet for storm names when the predetermined list of 21 names is exhausted.
In the coastal city of Bilwi, Nicaragua’s navy spent Monday ferrying residents of coastal islands to shelters in Bilwi, also known as Puerto Cabezas, according to The Associated Press.
“It was an intense night for everyone in Bilwi, Waspam and the communities along the northern coast,” Tamil Zapata, local Bilwi representative of the ruling Sandinista Front, told local Channel 4 according to the AP.
Javier Plat, a local Catholic priest in Puerto Cabezas, told Reuters on Monday that there was already a citywide power outage and that evacuation shelters had reached capacity.
“This city of 70,000 people is very vulnerable,” he said. “We have houses made of wood and adobe, the infrastructure of the residential houses is our main vulnerability.”
On Twitter, the National Police of Honduras shared videos of flood rescues and areas of landslide risks on Tuesday. One such video showed a woman being saved after waist-deep floodwaters trapped her in a home.
Police officers in Honduras help a woman to safety as floodwaters from Hurricane Eta’s rains inundated the region on Monday, Nov. 2, before the storm had even made landfall. (Policía Nacional de Honduras)
While certainly notable for its strengthening and direct impacts on Central America, the entire picture of how Eta will be remembered may not be painted for a couple more weeks.
Here are some of the notably historical takeaways from Eta:
150 mph: By peaking at maximum sustained wind speeds of 150 mph on Tuesday morning, Eta tied Hurricane Laura for the title of strongest storm system of the 2020 Atlantic hurricane season.2007: It has been 13 years since a major hurricane crashed into Nicaragua. Hurricane Felix dealt a devastating blow as a Category 5 hurricane in 2007.28: By strengthening into a tropical storm on Nov. 1, the storm was named Eta and became the 28th named storm of the 2020 season, tying a record with 2005.Fifth: Eta became the fifth system of 2020 to reach major hurricane status.Third: Of those five major hurricanes, Eta will be the third to make landfall.Nov. 3: By reaching Nicaragua on Nov. 3, Eta will become the latest landfalling storm of Category 4 strength or greater to ever reach the nation.
According to AccuWeather Senior Meteorologist Alex Sosnowski, Eta may stick around for long enough to even be part of your Thanksgiving dinner conversation.
(AccuWeather)
Eta could emerge back over Caribbean waters after pummeling Central America or a spin-off storm could develop in the western Atlantic, according to Sosnowski. “It is possible we may be planning Thanksgiving dinner and still watching Eta or a spin-off from it,” he said.
Due to inconsistent and erratic steering winds from Central America to the southwestern Atlantic, Sosnowski said that Eta could take a zig-zagging path from its point of landfall in Central America to Cuba, the southeastern Gulf, Florida and the Bahamas — a trek that could go on for days.
The storm could make landfall as a hurricane in Cuba, then move over the rugged terrain of the country, losing some wind intensity as it does so late in the weekend or early next week. After that, it could approach the southern tip of Florida as a tropical storm by Tuesday.
“As a result, Eta or a spin-off from it will need to be watched by all interests in the region. If the feature spends time over open, warm waters, it could strengthen and, at the very least, could generate flooding downpours and rough seas with the potential for much more significant impacts,” he said.
The Atlantic hurricane season officially ends on Nov. 30, but AccuWeather meteorologists have been warning since the summer that threats could linger well into December.
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