QCOSTARICA – Tropical Storm Iota has formed and is expected to become a major hurricane before posing another serious threat of flooding rainfall to Central America.
The weather phenomenon that is moving slowly through the Caribbean Sea towards Central America became tropical storm Iota on Friday afternoon and was only one step away from becoming a hurricane.
The U.S. National Hurricane Center (NHC) detailed that the cyclone with associated winds of 65 kilometers per hour is moving slowly towards the border between Nicaragua and Honduras.
It’s uncertain how strong this tropical cyclone will become, but favorable upper-level winds and warm sea-surface temperatures favor that it will intensify into at least a strong hurricane. Significant strengthening into a major hurricane is also now expected on Sunday night or Monday.
The storm groups cloudiness and rain with bands of clouds that gradually strengthen, so that in the next few hours it could pass to a higher degree and become a hurricane.
Shortly afterward, the national weather service, the Instituto Meteorológico Nacional (IMN) reported that the phenomenon at the moment does not have any indirect effect on Costa Rica and that it will remain so throughout Friday.
IMN meteorologist Daniel Poleo confirmed the afternoon rains in the Pacific and Central Valley are part of the typical rainy season conditions.
“Iota is moving slowly towards the north of Nicaragua and the south of Honduras. We expect that in the next few hours it will strengthen and that a hurricane will form.
The meteorologist added that the intertropical convergence is expected to increase rainfall on Saturday and Sunday in the afternoons and nights, but “we will not have extreme rainy conditions”.
Iota is the 30th storm of the 2020 Atlantic hurricane season, which is two more storms than the previous record for a season set in 2005.
