aspen wrote:There are currently three potential tracks once 98L/Iota reaches roughly ~77W: either it continues SW into Costa Rica/southern Nicaragua (Euro, CMC, GFS-Para), goes a little north but is blocked into Nicaragua/Honduras just like Eta (GFS), or it gets north of Honduras before being blocked south (ICON). Despite these varying tracks, they're generally consistent with timing, with all but the CMC showing a landfall sometime a little after 144 hours out, although some are later than others.
https://i.imgur.com/YBWRg3H.png
SSTs are at least 28.5C across 98L/Iota's potential tracks, with the highest SSTs and maximum potential intensities in the SW Caribbean. Assuming these MPIs hold up, they'll be higher than when Eta was in this region, meaning Iota has the potential to become another sub-925 mbar Cat 4/5 -- assuming other aspects (wind shear, outflow channels, atmospheric moisture, core structure) support it. It seems to be that Iota will be 2020's last shot to produce a Category 5 (which is the exact same thing I said about Delta...then Zeta...then Eta).
https://i.imgur.com/MnSbOsi.png
Seems counter-intuitive that MPI could increase as we get deeper into November and another major hurricane has already tracked across the area (upwelling). What is the mechanism by which this has occurred?