FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. — Hurricane Iota, the season's 13th hurricane, strengthened to a Category 2 storm on Sunday evening, its strongest winds reaching 100 mph, and it was expected to be at or near Category 4 strength ahead of its forecasted landfall in northeastern Central America, the National Hurricane Center said.
"Rapid strengthening is expected during the next 24 hours, and Iota is forecast to be an extremely dangerous category 4 hurricane when it approaches Central America," the National Hurricane Center said in a 7 p.m. Sunday public advisory.
If the forecast holds, Iota would be "only (the) 2nd Atlantic hurricane to reach Category 4 intensity this late in the calendar year on record," according to Colorado State University meteorologist Phil Klotzbach.
Only 2005 has had more hurricanes on record, at 15, Klotzbach added.
Iota had increased in intensity from a tropical storm to a hurricane at Category 1 strength, with 90 mph winds, by Sunday morning, before intensifying again to a Category 2 hurricane by Sunday night. Iota is likely to be at Category 3 strength Monday, forecasters said.
By Monday night, Iota is expected to reach Category 4 hurricane strength — with winds at 140 mph — as it approaches the coast of northern Nicaragua and northeastern Honduras.
The storm is expected bring life-threatening storm surge of 9 to 13 feet to the region, where hurricane and storm surge warnings were in effect Sunday.
Flooding and rains of 8 to 16 inches — with isolated totals of 30 inches — are also forecast in Honduras, northern Nicaragua, Guatemala and southern Belize, the hurricane center said in its latest advisory.
This same area was devastated by Hurricane Eta on Nov. 3, which barreled ashore in coastal Nicaragua near Honduras, at Category 4 strength. The storm brought deadly flooding and storm surge. At least 120 were killed, according to the Associated Press.
Iota could also bring heavy rainfall and flooding to portions of Haiti and Jamaica, with possible landslides, forecasters said.
Named after the ninth letter of the Greek alphabet, Iota (pronounced ee-oh-tah), isn't expected to take the same turn to the north that Eta did before hitting Florida earlier this week. It could, however, travel to the Pacific Ocean, becoming a rare crossover storm that gets renamed.
Iota was about 255 miles east-southeast of the border between Nicaragua and Honduras, moving west at 9 mph, as of 7 p.m. Sunday. Its expanding tropical storm-force winds stretch 125 miles.
Hurricane-force winds were extending 25 miles out from Iota's center.
Forecasters expect Iota to continue to speed up as it churns across the central Caribbean Sea.
The 2020 hurricane season became the busiest in recorded history when Tropical Storm Theta formed on Nov. 9. Theta is still active in the far eastern Atlantic but is of no immediate threat to land.
Tropical Storm Eta became the first storm of the 2020 hurricane season to make landfall in Florida when it moved over the Florida Keys last Sunday. It made a second landfall just south of Cedar Key early Thursday.
