Hurricane Iota: Lightning inside the eyewall. (WaPo images)

[My Pet Orangutan]

An eyewall shrouded in electricity



Iota’s furious eyewall was crackling with electricity Monday afternoon, a rarity in tropical storms and hurricanes. Usually, the updrafts and sideways spiral of air is insufficient to induce charge separation, which gives rise to lightning. But not with Iota. When a hurricane produces frequent lightning in its eyewall, you know it’s a top-tier storm.

Trochoidal wobbles



The most powerful hurricanes occasionally appear to “wobble” as they churn, and Iota is no exception. Early Monday, its eye was organizing, the ragged, misshapen feature becoming carved out into a perfect circle. That’s around the same time Iota’s winds spiked to Category 5 strength.

Satellite



https://www.washingtonpost.com/weather/2020/11/16/five-images-hurricane-iota/

[DanieRains]

1. Wait Till The Gulf Warms Another 5 or 10 Degrees

What is stronger than a Cat 5?

Cat 6?

Cat 7?

Drill Baby Drill!

[malaise]

3. Jeff Masters column at Weather Underground was called

Category 6. He saw what was coming.
Amazing how something so beautiful is so deadly.

[LeftInTX]

6. I miss that column and the chat

And following storms in real time!

[maxrandb]

5. The Finger of God

https://m.

[brer cat]

2. I am afraid the death and destruction will be catastrophic.

[Deuxcents]

4. It will be

Their building codes, even if they have any, cannot withstand this. Even in Florida with all our codes, it would be catastrophic. They just had Eta last week..we’re still cleaning it n we only got lots of rain. And yet..leadership is in denial about climate change. I think a cat 5 is the highest category for hurricanes..the eye is so perfectly formed, you can see clear to the ocean with this one. Damn

[crickets]

7. I am afraid you're right. It's horrifying.

The first thing that occurred to me on seeing the satellite photo is, "Oh, no. Not another Katrina." I am so worried for all of the people in Iota's path. It's going to be really bad, and it's so frustrating no one can do anything to stop it.