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 didn’t deter 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, and the storm had been blamed for at least one fatality.
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. Some residential areas, many of which consist of poorly-constructed adobe homes, had been taking a pounding from the storm since Monday.
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 Eta weakened slightly before landfall, the hurricane was whipping maximum sustained winds of 150 mph at its peak, just shy of Category 5 classification (winds of 157 mph or greater). It made landfall at about 4 p.m., EST on Tuesday south of Puerto Cabezas, Nicaragua, with 140-mph sustained winds.
