COLUMBIA, S.C. — Hurricane Iota made landfall late Monday night as a major hurricane. The storm hit just about 15 miles south of where Eta hit earlier this month in Nicaragua.
Iota made landfall at 10:40 PM Monday as a Category 4 storm. It hit along the northeastern coast of Nicaragua near the town of Haulover.
The storm had sustained winds of about 155 mph at landfall with stronger gusts. Hurricane Iota's location was about 15 miles south of where Hurricane Eta made landfall on November 3rd.
According to Dr. Philip Klotzbach, Iota is now the strongest November hurricane on record to make landfall in Nicaragua, it passed the previous record set by Eta just 13 days ago.
Hurricane Eta was also a Category 4 storm when it hit Nicaragua earlier this month.
The storm was located about 135 miles east of Tegucigalpa, Honduras Tuesday morning. It had winds of 75 mph with stronger gusts. It was moving west at 12 mph.
It is expected to continue to produce catastrophic flash flooding and mudslides across parts of Central America over the next couple of days.
Iota will continue to weaken as it moves over land, but life-threatening hazards will continue for Central America.
Elsewhere in the Tropics:
A broad area of low pressure could form in a couple of days over the southwestern Caribbean Sea.
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Conditions are expected to be favorable for slow development, and a tropical depression could form by the weekend while the system moves slowly westward or west-southwestward across the southwestern Caribbean.
Regardless of development, areas of heavy rain are possible during the next several days from Nicaragua southward across Central America and into Colombia.
These rains could cause new flooding concerns, especially across previously inundated areas.