Eta to be Cat 4 monster when it hits Nicaragua

Hurricane Eta took only 24 hours to transform from a tropical storm with 65 mph winds to a Category 4 monster packing sustained winds of 132 mph and gusts of 161 mph as it bears down on Nicaragua and Honduras. There is a chance it could increase its power to a Category 5 before making landfall Tuesday morning. Current projections indicate it will be back to tropical storm strength by midnight.

There was some concern that the storm could whip around and pass through Guatemala and Belize to enter the western Caribbean with enough power to pose a threat to either Florida or the Gulf Coast. That scenario has largely been put aside as it is now expected Eta will move slowly through Central America and dissipate in Guatemala. Its remnants could become part of a storm system expected to form between the Bahamas and Bermuda later this month, forecasters said.

Eta will be bringing a storm surge wall of 18 feet, devastating winds that will fell trees and cause power outages and torrential rains that will cause flooding and mudslides. It is being compared to killer storm Hurricane Mitch of 1998, who also took a Central American path that unleashed catastrophic flooding that left 11,000 people dead. Eta is the strongest hurricane this late in the year since Otto in 2016, which was a Category 3 hurricane before striking southern Nicaragua. The National Hurricane Center noted that Otto was responsible for 18 deaths in Central America.

Eta is the 28th named storm of the 2020 hurricane season, tying the 2005 for the number of tropical storms and hurricanes. The 2005 season included a brief unnamed storm that was discovered in a post-season analysis. Eta is the 12 hurricane of the season.

It is the first storm to be called Eta -- the seventh letter of the Greek alphabet. It is also one of only a handful of named Category 4 hurricanes to form in November. The others were Lenny in 1999, Michelle in 2001 and Paloma in 2008. An unnamed Category 5 storm, called the Cuba Hurricane of 1932, is still the strongest November storm, unless Eta continues gaining strength instead of weakening as it approaches Puerta Cabezas, Nicaragua.

Nicaragua has issued a hurricane warning for coast of Nicaragua and Honduras has a hurricane watch in effect for its coast.

Meteorologists said Eta formed in almost perfect conditions to spark rapid intensification -- very warm water and low vertical wind shear. It was that recipe that led to a sleepy tropical depression becoming a tropical storm and then a roaring major hurricane in such a short period of time. Fortunately -- if fortunately is the right word -- Eta formed relatively close to its expected target, so it did not have hundreds of miles of open water to build up even more power to unleash when it strikes land.