Hurricane Iota made landfall as a Category 4 storm with 155 mile per hour winds Tuesday night in Central America, again devastating Nicaragua and Honduras.
Often by November, Louisiana residents think we have seen the worst of hurricane season with cold fronts moving through and Gulf water temperatures cooling down considerably, too, to welcome holidays ahead.
Hurricanes Iota and Eta are just two of many, historically, that remind us Hurricane Season does not end until November 30th. Even sadder, both storms made landfall in incredibly crose proximity of each other, 15 miles apart.
Hurricane Eta is the 5th Category 4 hurricane in November on record. This is also the fastest intensifying November storm on record, as its pressure dropped 55 millibars in 18 hours. Eta’s windspeeds went from 70 miles per hour at its 1AM Advisory Monday, November 2nd to 150 miles per hour by its 7PM Advisory.
The latest Category 4 hurricane on record is Hurricane Lenny, which made landfall on November 17, 1999. Currently, the 2020 season has broken 2005’s record for most named storms, with 2005’s last storm of the season having been December 30, 2005. Given current trends, Hurricane Season 2020 may extend well beyond November 30th, as well.
Fast forward 21 years, and Hurricane Iota made landfall as a Category 4 just one day earlier than the standing record on November 16, 2020. Before downgrading to a Category 4 storm with 155 mile per hour winds, Iota reached Category 5 intensity with 160 mile per hour winds, making it the first storm to do so this season and the latest Category 5 on record. Plus, it is only the second Category 5 to ever make landfall in November.
In addition to having broken that record, Iota’s 160 mile per hour intensity achieved a different one, marking the first time the Atlantic has seen 5 consecutive years with a Category 5 hurricane.
This is the list of Category 5 hurricanes each year since 2016 below.
Early on, NOAA’s forecast for August-November being “extremely active” months came to fruition, given every name on the 2020 Atlantic Names List was used before October, causing the Greek alphabet to kick in! The last time that happened was the 2005 hurricane season, which spurred Katrina.
As far as this year’s timeline, however, we have far surpassed 2005’s when the Greek Alphabet first kicked in on October 22, 2005 for Alpha. Beta then formed October 27, 2005. Gamma, Delta, Epsilon and Zeta all formed during November 2005 on the 15th, 22nd, and 29th, respectively.
The National Hurricane Center did not start presenting a list of names for storms until 1953. If all names are used up on the original list each season, then the Greek alphabet kicks in. 2020’s hurricane season has produced thirty tropical depressions, twenty-nine of which have become tropical storms. In addition, there have been thirteen hurricanes, six of which became major hurricanes.