Hurricane Iota was the second Category 5 hurricane to make landfall in November on record. At least 61 people were killed due to Iota including at least 28 in Nicaragua and 16 in Honduras, among other countries. It is the thirty-first tropical cyclone, thirtieth named storm, thirteenth hurricane, and sixth major hurricane of the record-breaking 2020 Atlantic hurricane season.
About Hurricane Iota in brief
Hurricane Iota was the latest known Atlantic hurricane ever to attain Category 5 intensity, and only the second Category 5 Atlantic hurricane to exist within the month of November on record. Iota caused severe damage to areas of Central America already devastated by Hurricane Eta just less than two weeks prior. At least 61 people were killed due to Iota including at least 28 in Nicaragua and 16 in Honduras, among other countries. As many as 41 people are currently missing. An estimated total of 5.2 million people were affected by the storm, while hundreds of thousands of people have been displaced. It is the thirty-first tropical cyclone, thirtieth named storm, thirteenth hurricane, and sixth major hurricane of the record-breaking 2020 Atlantic hurricane season. The precursor wave to IOTA generated flash flooding in most of the Caribbean islands, leading to flash flooding and mudslides. It was the first time that there were two major hurricanes recorded in November. It became a high-end Category 4 hurricane, becoming the strongest recorded hurricane to make landfall in Nicaragua in November, then rapidly weakened as it moved inland, dissipating on November 18. After peaking in intensity, Iota’s pressure fluctuated somewhat in the Atlantic basin before it began to interact with land as the storm began to weaken. The storm is the latest recorded storm to become a Category 5 hurricane, as well as the latest storm to reach that level of intensity in the Atlantic basin.
It has also been the most powerful hurricane to ever form in the eastern Atlantic, with sustained winds of up to 100 miles per hour (160 km/h) and sustained winds up to 150 mph (240 kph) Iota is the first storm to be classified as a Category 5 hurricane since Hurricane Katrina in 2005. It also made 2020 the fifth consecutive Atlantic hurricane season since 2016 to feature at least one Category 5 hurricane. It will also be the fifth consecutive season to have at least two Category 5 hurricanes in the Eastern Caribbean and the sixth concerning Tropical Storms in the Atlantic Basin and Central America in that year. It is also the first year that there have been two category 5 Hurricanes recorded in the Atlantic Basin at the same time in the same season. The first time this has occurred was in 1978, when Hurricane Ike made landfall in the United States as a Category 3 hurricane. The second time was in 1932 when Hurricane Cuba made landfall in Cuba, making it the second category 5 hurricane to occur in November. The second time that two hurricanes have been recorded in November on record is when Hurricane Eta made landfall in Cuba on November 28. The tropical wave developed into a tropical depression north of Colombia on November 10. On November 13, it developed into Tropical Depression Thirty-One in the southern Caribbean, tying 2005 for the most tropical depressions recorded in one season. Six hours later, it strengthened into Tropical Storm Iota.
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This page is based on the article Hurricane Iota published in Wikipedia (as of Dec. 08, 2020) and was automatically summarized using artificial intelligence.
