While the recovery continues from Hurricane Melissa, it’s still amazing to me that just five years ago, we were entering a two-week period when two Category 4 hurricanes struck virtually the same place.
On Nov. 3, 2020, Hurricane Eta roared ashore in northeastern Nicaragua at Category 4 intensity.
Eta pushed a storm surge of 26 to 33 feet above normal near its landfall location south of Puerto Cabezas, according to the meteorological service of Nicaragua, where a peak gust of 136 mph was also reported.
(MORE: Full Hurricane Eta Summary)
But Eta’s slow crawl through Central America wrung out up to 31 inches of rain, leading to deadly flash flooding and mudslides from Costa Rica to Mexico. At least 165 were killed in Central America from Eta, according to the National Hurricane Center.
At its Nov. 2-3 peak, Eta was the third-strongest November hurricane on record in the Atlantic by wind speed and just the fifth Atlantic Category 4 or higher hurricane to occur in the month.
But just 13 days after Eta’s Nicaragua landfall, Hurricane Iota also made a Cat 4 landfall in northeast Nicaragua, just 15 miles from where Eta came ashore.
Each hurricane triggered catastrophic flooding and landslides in parts of Nicaragua, Honduras and Guatemala. Flooding inundated Ramón Villeda Morales International Airport near San Pedro Sula, Honduras, from both Eta and Iota.
It was the first time on record that two major hurricanes — Category 3 or stronger — made landfall in Nicaragua during the same hurricane season.
Tracks of Hurricanes Eta (yellow) and Iota (white) in November 2020.
(Data: NOAA/NHC)
Jonathan Erdman is a senior meteorologist at weather.com and has been covering national and international weather since 1996. Extreme and bizarre weather are his favorite topics. Reach out to him on Bluesky, X (formerly Twitter) and Facebook.
