Hurricane Iota made landfall late Monday as an extremely strong Category 4 with maximum sustained winds of 155 mph and a storm surge of 15-20 feet, just miles from where Hurricane Eta made landfall about two weeks ago. Iota, which reached Category 5 strength for a time, is the strongest hurricane of the 2020 Atlantic hurricane season and the strongest storm on record to make landfall in Nicaragua. Its impact is amplified as it follows so closely after Eta, which left tens of thousands homeless and levees at or over capacity. A humanitarian catastrophe is likely. Iota continues to dump torrential rain, with the already-saturated Honduras and Nicaragua expecting maximum totals of 30 inches of rain through Thursday, likely causing flash flooding and landslides. Climate change, caused by burning gas, oil, and coal, is making strong hurricanes even more extreme and making their rapid intensification more likely. Iota is the latest Category 5 hurricane ever observed in the Atlantic, and “there is no historical precedent for two Atlantic hurricanes of at least category 4 strength hitting the same location just two weeks apart,” according to meteorologist Jeff Masters, writing at Yale Climate Connections. (CNN, NPR, Earther, New York Times $, NBC, Washington Post $, AP, Bloomberg $; Meteorological details: Yale Climate Connections, Washington Post $; Climate Signals background: Hurricanes, 2020 Hurricane Season)