🌀 Eta · Category 4 · 150 mph

Saturday, October 31, 2020 · 6:00 PM – 12:00 AM

Hurricane Eta was a deadly and erratic tropical cyclone that devastated parts of Central America in early November 2020. The record-tying twenty-eighth named storm, thirteenth hurricane, and sixth major hurricane of the extremely active 2020 Atlantic hurricane season, Eta originated from a vigorous tropical wave in the eastern Caribbean Sea on October 31. The system rapidly organized as it progressed west, with the cyclone ultimately becoming a Category 4 hurricane on November 3. With a peak intensity of 150 mph (240 km/h) and 922 millibars, it was the third most intense November Atlantic hurricane on record, behind the 1932 Cuba hurricane and Hurricane Iota, the latter of which formed just two weeks later in the same area. Some weakening took place as the system made landfall near Puerto Cabezas, Nicaragua, late that same day. Eta rapidly weakened to a tropical depression and briefly degenerated to a remnant low as it meandered across Central America for two days, before regenerating into a tropical depression and moving north over water. The storm later reorganized over the Caribbean as it accelerated toward Cuba on November 7, making a second landfall on the next day. Over the next five days, the system moved erratically, making a third landfall in the Florida Keys, on November 9, before slowing down and making a counterclockwise loop in the southern Gulf of Mexico, just off the coast of Cuba, with the storm's intensity fluctuating along the way. After briefly regaining hurricane strength on November 11, the system weakened back to a tropical storm once more, before making a fourth landfall on Florida on the next day, and proceeding to accelerate northeastward. Eta subsequently became extratropical on November 13, before dissipating off the coast of the Eastern United States on the next day. Category 4 hurricane: peak winds of 150 mph (130 knots), lowest pressure 922 mb. October 31 – November 14, 2020. Landfalls: November 3 at 140 mph, 13.8°N 83.5°W; November 8 at 65 mph, 21.5°N 79.2°W; November 9 at 65 mph, 24.9°N 80.7°W; November 12 at 50 mph, 29.2°N 82.9°W. Accumulated cyclone energy: 18.2. Wiki link Track: NOAA National Hurricane Center, HURDAT2 best track AL292020 (public domain).

🌀 Eta · Category 4 · 150 mph