Hurricane Iota

[bjdeming]

Probably a stupid question, but why was not upwelling from Eta a weakening factor here?

 

[bjdeming]

I have a friend who lives on San Andrés. The island took a pretty good hit. She said it was "horrible" and that she and her family didn't sleep at all before and during Iota passing nearby. The island has pretty extensive damage and it's so far away from the Colombian mainland that getting supplies and resources into San Andrés is a major challenge. Not to mention, the Colombian government doesn't exactly excel at handling natural disasters.

From San Andres (don't know exact location):




Edit: Per this news story, browser translated:

. . . the national government hopes to reach the archipelago of San Andrés and Providencia tomorrow with humanitarian aid.

Damage in St Andrew's​

The hurricane also caused great property damage on the island of San Andrés, one of the jewels of tourism in the Colombian Caribbean, but the destruction was less than that suffered by Providencia, a turquoise-blue paradise island located about 90 kilometers to the northeast.

Reportedly 98% of the infrastructure on Providencia is gone; only one death reported thus far (fingers crossed).

Meanwhile, in the wake of Eta, before Iota: https://reliefweb.int/report/hondur...n-situation-report-no-3-800am-est-16-november

Edit: Here is this organization's information and update page for Iota: https://reliefweb.int/disaster/tc-2020-000227-nic

 

[warneagle]

Iota just made landfall in Nicaragua at 155 mph. Only about 15 miles from where Eta made landfall.

 

[Mike S]

Time sensitive - from inside Iota, courtesy of Profecías del Mañana

 

[CheeselandSkies]

Probably a stupid question, but why was not upwelling from Eta a weakening factor here?

29°C waters just went that deep...

However, it does seem like upwelling might have become a bit of an issue for Iota prior to landfall, as its intensification appeared to stall shortly after the operational upgrade to 140kt. Although the satellite presentation continued to improve for a bit, no further recon passes supported Cat. 5 winds, and after awhile the gradient in the core seemed to broaden out a bit, and an eyewall replacement cycle began. Operationally, the intensity was bumped down to 135kt for landfall. I would expect final analysis to peg it somewhere from there down to about 120kt, but probably not any less than that.