Record-breaking 2020 Atlantic Hurricane Season Continues: Iota is the strongest Atlantic hurricane of the year and only the second November hurricane to reach category five - the last was in 1932: Iota is the 30th named storm, the 13th hurricane, the 6th major hurricane

Hurricane Iota, credit NOAA.

Hurricane Iota has made landfall in Nicaragua just two weeks after another devastating storm hit. The US National Hurricane Center (NHC) said the storm crossed the coast on Monday evening. Iota is the strongest Atlantic hurricane of the year and only the second November hurricane to reach category five - the last was in 1932.

From its vantage point roughly 22,300 miles above the Earth, the GOES-East satellite captured this GeoColor and GLM lightning composite image loop of powerful Hurricane Iota making its way toward Central America on Nov. 16, 2020.

The storm strengthened into a Category-5 hurricane on the Saffir-Simpson Hurricane Wind Scale on the morning of November 16 with sustained wind speeds of 160 mph. Meteorologists also look for signs of lightning around the eye, as in the image loop above, which is often an indication of rapid intensification. NOAA’s National Hurricane Center (NHC) issued a hurricane warning along portions of Nicaragua’s northeastern coast, where “extreme winds and life-threatening storm surge” were expected.

Iota is the 30th named storm, the 13th hurricane, the 6th major hurricane (Category-3 +), and the first Category-5 storm of the record-breaking 2020 Atlantic hurricane season. It is also the latest-forming Category-5 hurricane on record. Additionally, 2020 is the 5th consecutive season where at least one Category-5 hurricane formed in the Atlantic basin and the first time since 1932 where a Category-5 storm formed in November.

Hurricanes and Cyclones 2020

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