Eta strengthened into a hurricane early Monday, November 2, 2020, and is forecast to get stronger in the next 24 hours, possibly turning it into a Category 3 by the time it makes landfall in Nicaragua early Tuesday, November 2, 2020, according to the National Hurricane Centre. Photo: NHC

The predicted path of Eta as of Saturday, October 31, 2020. Photo: CBS News

Record season

With Eta, the 2020 hurricane season ties 2005 for most named storms in a season — 28 — and also marks the first time a storm has been named for the seventh letter in the Greek alphabet.

In 2005, there were only 27 named storms, with one unnamed subtropical storm being added to the tally in a post-season reanalysis by the National Hurricane Centre.

Strengthening expected

As of 8:00am today, Eta was moving west near 10 mph and was a Category 1 hurricane with maximum sustained winds of 90 mph with higher gusts, according to the hurricane centre.

The storm was about 140 miles east of Cabo Gracias a Dios, a cape that is on the Honduras-Nicaragua border and about 165 miles east-northeast of Puerto Cabezas, Nicaragua.

“Strengthening, possibly rapid, is expected through early Tuesday, and Eta could be a major hurricane when landfall occurs by early Tuesday. Weakening will begin after the system moves inland,” forecasters wrote.

Eta can bring catastrophic conditions to Central America

Eta is expected to bring life-threatening storm surge, damaging winds, flash flooding and landslides across portions of Central America. Heavy rainfall is also expected, with Nicaragua and Honduras forecast to get the worst of it, with 10 to 25 inches of rain and some isolated areas seeing up to 35 inches of rain.

“This rainfall would lead to catastrophic, life-threatening flash flooding and river flooding, along with landslides in areas of higher terrain of Central America. Flash flooding and river flooding would be possible across Jamaica, southeast Mexico, El Salvador, southern Haiti, and the Cayman Islands,” forecasters have said.