Forecasters: 2 disturbances could form soon in Atlantic
With a few more weeks left in hurricane season, the National Hurricane Center is monitoring two areas for potential development in the Atlantic basin.
A tropical depression could form in the next few days in the southwestern Caribbean, just south of the location in Central America that has been recently ravaged by Hurricane Iota and Hurricane Eta, according to the National Hurricane Center.
It has been given a 10% chance of developing in the next five days and is expected to bring heavy rains to Nicaragua and Colombia, forecasters said.
Meanwhile, a non-tropical area of lowpressure has a 20% chance of forming between the Bahamas and Bermuda in the next five days. It is forecast to move in a northeastward direction.
The 2020 hurricane season became the busiest in recorded history when Tropical Storm Theta formed on Nov. 9. Only 2005 has had more hurricanes on record, at 15, Colorado State University hurricane researcher Phil Klotzbach said.
Most recently, Hurricane Iota made landfall Monday night in north eastern Nicaragua as a Category 4 storm with winds of 155 mph — just 15 miles south of where Hurricane Eta came ashore twoweeks ago.
Iota was stronger, based on central pressure, than 2005’s Hurricane Katrina and is the first storm with a Greek alphabet name to hit Category 5, Colorado State University hurricane researcher Phil Klotzbach said. It also set the record for the latest Category 5 hurricane on record, beating the record set by the Nov. 8, 1932, Cuba Hurricane.
This hurricane season has been marked by storms — such as Hannah, Laura, Sally, Teddy, Gamma, Delta and Zeta — that have “rapidly intensified,” meaning a gain of at least 35 mph in wind speed in a 24-hour period. Iota doubled that mark in the overnight hours Sunday, going from a Category 2 hurricane to a Category 4.
Iota dissipated over western El Salvador on Wednesday.
The next named storm would be Kappa.