160 mph Cat 5!!
Hurricane Iota now has maximum sustained wind of 160 mph with higher gusts and a minimum central pressure of 916 mb!
In a year with the most tropical systems in the Atlantic basin on record, it took 'til the middle of November to have our strongest storm! It is also the latest category 5 on record for the Atlantic basin.
A little more strengthening is possible today with fairly light shear and warm waters before Iota makes landfall tonight.
This is a catastrophic situation unfolding for northeastern Nicaragua with an extreme storm surge of 15-20 ft forecast along with destructive winds and potentially 30 inches of rainfall, and it is exacerbated by the fact that it should make landfall in almost the exact same location that category 4 Hurricane Eta did about two weeks ago.
