Hurricane Iota in the Caribbean Sea
Iota intensified to a Category 1 hurricane at 0600 UTC on 15 November 2020 — 1-minute Mesoscale Domain Sector GOES-16 (GOES-East) “Red” Visible (0.64 µm), “Clean” Infrared Window (10.35 µm) and Mid-level (6.9 µm) Water Vapor images (above) showed that the interior structure of the tropical cyclone improved during the day.GOES-16 Longwave Infrared (11.2 µm) images, with contours of 02 UTC deep-layer wind shear from the CIMSS Tropical Cyclones site (below)showed that the hurricane was moving through an environment of low southwesterly shear, which favored intensification.
===== 16 November Update =====
Iota rapidly intensified to a Category 5 storm as of 15 UTC on 16 November (ADT | SATCON). 1-minute GOES-16 Visible and Infrared images from sunrise to sunset are shown above; mesovortices were seen within the eye of the hurricane. Iota had been moving over warm water having Sea Surface Temperature values of 29-30ºC, which was favorable for intensification. After sunset, Hurricane Iota eventually made landfall along the coast of Nicaragua as a Category 4 storm at 0340 UTC on 17 November — GOES-16 Infrared images (above) indicated an eye structure that was deteriorating and becoming more cloud-filled as the hurricane approached the coast.