Hurricane Eta

Hurricane Eta originated from a tropical depression that formed in the central Caribbean Sea on October 31, 2020.

The depression strengthened into Tropical Storm Eta later that day as it moved westward.

Eta continued to rapidly intensify, and became a major hurricane less than two days later on November 2nd while moving westward across the western Caribbean Sea. It reached a peak intensity of 150 mph and 923 mb on November 3, 2020 a short distance off the Nicaragua coast.

Eta made landfall near Puerto Cabezas, Nicaragua on November 3, 2020. The storm meandered across Nicaragua and Honduras while weakening to a tropical depression. Despite weakening, Eta brought devastating impacts to portions of Central America. Eta reemerged over the northwest Caribbean Sea and gradually turned northeastward on November 5th.

Eta regained tropical storm status on November 6th and made landfall in Cuba on the 7th before emerging into the Florida Straits.

After making landfall in Cuba on the 7th, Eta emerged in the Florida Straits and turned westward on the 8th. The first Florida landfall occurred in the Florida Keys later that same day.

Outside of heavy rainfall across Southwest Florida, little impact was felt across the region on this first pass. In fact, no wind was even reported from Fort Myers to Cedar Key on the 7th, 8th, 9th or 10th. At the same time, there were already signs Eta would be making a turn back in the general direction of Florida, and residents had to once again brace for another pass.

The storm made a southwest jog into the southeastern Gulf on the 9th before it briefly stalled, then turned northward on the 10th. Eta accelerated north-northeast across the eastern Gulf toward the Florida west coast and briefly strengthened to a minimal hurricane during the early morning hours of the 11th, reaching a second peak of 75 mph and 983 mb while centered about 170 miles south-southwest of Tampa. Thankfully, the storm began to weaken before arriving just off the Florida coast a few hours later.

Nevertheless, Eta brought tropical-storm force winds, heavy rain, and some storm surge to southwest Florida during the morning and afternoon of November 11th.

Farther to the north, winds and seas were also beginning to build by midday as the center of Eta drew closer to the coast.

By the evening, Eta was moving parallel to the shoreline just off the west coast. The storm's motion and wind direction, coupled with the approach of high tide, began to force water onshore in and around Tampa Bay.

By the early morning hours of November 12th, Eta was just off the Nature Coast. Storm surge flooding began to encroach upon northern coastal communities as landfall neared, including Cedar Key.

Eta made landfall on November 12th near Cedar Key around 4 AM EST with maximum sustained winds of 50 mph and a minimum central pressure of 996 mb.

Cut off from it's source of energy, the ocean, Eta quickly began falling apart after making landfall. The storm had already been dealing with increasingly hostile conditions as it moved northward. Becoming disconnected from warm ocean water, Eta began to weaken further. However, the storm held together as a tropical storm for another day as it reemerged into the Atlantic Ocean and moved off the Georgia and South Carolina coastline. Eta quickly became post-tropical thereafter and officially dissipated on November 13, 2020. Outside of some lingering heavy rain, impacts to the United States were minimal after landfall in Florida.

The 2020 Atlantic Hurricane Season was record-breaking. Eta was the 29th named storm, and there were still two more that developed thereafter. Amazingly, West Central and Southwest Florida avoided significant impacts from every other storm of the season. The region was not so fortunate with Eta. There were significant impacts, particularly from flooding, associated with Eta across the region.

In Pinellas County, Sheriff Deputies had to rescue 33 people in flooded homes and stalled vehicles in Pass-A-Grille, Florida. Water from the Gulf flooded areas near the beach from St. Pete Beach to Madeira Beach. Additionally, one business sitting along the edge of John's Pass reported 2.5 feet of water inside their building. A handful of sail boats also lost their mooring in Gulfport and were beached; some sail boats became stuck on a bridge. Significant flooding occurred in the Shore Acres neighborhood in St. Petersburg, where many homes and roads flooded

On the southern shore of Tampa Bay in coastal Manatee county, flooding occurred along numerous coastal roads in Bradenton Beach, Anna Maria Island, and on Riverside Drive along the Manatee River. Several sailboats were sunk along the Bridge Street Pier. The one and only indirect fatality reported from Eta occurred in Bradenton Beach after a man was electrocuted when he touched an appliance while standing in water.

Coastal Sarasota County experienced similar impacts to Manatee County. Boats were scattered across Sarasota Bay. Several of these vessels slammed into docks, or became beached along the Ringling Causeway and Bayfront Park. Flooding closed roads on Lido and Manasota Keys with up to two feet of water reported on some roads.

Southwest Florida was not spared impacts either. In coastal Charlotte County, streets in and around Gilcrest Park became flooded and were blocked off. In coastal Lee County, flooding was also reported along the Sanibel Causeway, Oleander Street in St. James City, and on parts of Crescent Street in Fort Myers Beach.

Only one tornado impacted West Central and Southwest Florida during Eta. This tornado was rated an EF0. The only reported damage was to the porch of a home about 7 miles east of Lakewood Ranch.

The main silver lining with Eta was that it brought very beneficial rainfall to West Central and Southwest Florida. Heading into November, conditions had grown very dry. There were significant concerns that the area would enter a drought for the winter months. Water levels were running well below normal in area rivers, and the soil had dried out significantly. All the heavy rain that occurred was extremely helpful to recharge the area, and the surplus carried well into the winter. The highest accumulations fell immediately around Tampa Bay, one of the driest areas heading into November.

Thankfully, the storm had weakened significantly before impacting the area. Had the storm been stronger and had made landfall in the immediate Tampa Bay area, the impacts could have been much worse, and extended much farther inland.

Eta was a very long duration event, and the nature of conveying the different threats over several days prompted experimentation with a new way of presenting information to our partners and the public: breaking up the effects into different phases.

Feedback provided by core partners in the Emergency Management community suggested that this is a best practice to use moving forward. This allowed decision makers to effectively evaluate the immediate impacts while still planning for the longer-term possibilities of a complex high-impact event of this magnitude.

Meteorologists worked around the clock for days monitoring the progress of Eta and its potential impacts to the region, providing constant updates as Eta moved through. In addition to briefing the Emergency Managers and other core partners, emphasis was placed on providing useful information to the public in creative ways across different social media platforms.

The high-impact and long duration nature of Eta drew attention not just from local media, but from the national media as well. Multiple interviews were conducted with various TV, print, and radio news sources as Eta approached and impacted Florida.

Eta is quickly becoming a distant memory. However, the unique nature of the storm system provided valuable insight into how to provide useful information to our partners and the public during future events, and allowed all of us at the NWS Tampa Bay to try new and unique ways of responding to a historic hurricane season during a pandemic. For additional information on significant events from 2020, please see our  Weather Events  page on our website.