Residents of Nicaragua braced themselves for Hurricane Eta, which was expected to make landfall on the country's northeastern Caribbean coast on November 3, 2020. The U.S. National Hurricane Center (NHC) reported maximum sustained winds of 220 kilometers (140 miles) per hour for the category 4 storm as of 12 p.m. Central on November 3.
The Geostationary Operational Environmental Satellite 16 (GOES-16) captured this image of Eta around 12 p.m. Central on November 3. GOES-16 is operated by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA); NASA helps develop and launch the GOES series of satellites.
Once Eta makes landfall, it is expected to drop 40 to 50 centimeters (15 to 20 inches) of rain across swaths of Nicaragua and Honduras, and 25 centimeters (10 inches) across other parts of Central America. The NHC also warns of dangerous storm surges, flash flooding, and possible landslides in higher terrain areas.
NASA Earth Observatory image by Joshua Stevens, using GOES 16 imagery courtesy of NOAA and the National Environmental Satellite, Data, and Information Service (NESDIS). Caption by Kasha Patel.
