Hurricane Otto Crosses From Caribbean to Pacific (RECAP)

Otto made landfall just before 1 p.m. EST on Nov. 24 as a major hurricane, near the town of San Juan de Nicaragua in extreme southern Nicaragua.

(MORE: Otto Impacts Central America | Hurricane Central)

Otto's hurricane landfall was the latest in any calendar year on record in the Atlantic Basin, according to Colorado State University tropical scientist, Dr. Phil Klotzbach.

In a post-season report, the National Hurricane Center upgraded Otto's peak intensity by one category based on ground, satellite and airborne reconnaissance information that was massaged and interrogated after the storm. 

Maximum sustained winds were 115 mph at landfall, making Otto a Category 3 on the Saffir-Simpson Hurricane Wind Scale. Otto intensified from a tropical storm to a Category 3 hurricane in just 24 hours in the day leading up to landfall.

Otto is the only known hurricane to move over Costa Rica, where 10 people were killed mainly from flash flooding and landslides. Numerous locations in Costa Rica received more than 10 inches of rainfall. 

How Unusual Was This Late-Season Hurricane Landfall?

Put simply, Otto was a late November anomaly of record in several aspects, including the latest-in-calendar-year Atlantic basin hurricane landfall mentioned earlier.

• Nov. 24, Otto became the latest hurricane formation on record in the Caribbean Sea, surpassing Hurricane Martha in 1969 by one day, according to the National Hurricane Center (NHC). 
• Otto was the strongest Atlantic hurricane on record that late in the year during the satellite era, according to Eric Blake, a hurricane specialist with the National Hurricane Center. 
• It's also the farthest south a hurricane has made landfall on record in Central America, according to Alex Lamers, a meteorologist and program coordinator with NOAA and NESDIS. Otto surpasses Hurricane Irene in 1971, which also made landfall in Nicaragua, but 25-30 miles farther north. 

It was over 10 months between the 2016 Atlantic hurricane season's first named storm, the aforementioned Alex, and Otto.

Only nine tropical cyclones became hurricanes anywhere in the Atlantic Basin after November 21 from 1950 through 2015. The last to do so was Epsilon in December 2005. 

Only one of those nine hurricanes occurred in the southwest Caribbean Sea, Hurricane Martha in 1969.

According to NOAA's best track database, only 18 storms of at least tropical storm strength had formed in the Atlantic Basin on or after November 21 dating to 1950.

The last to do so was Tropical Storm Olga in December 2007. 

Lastly, Otto was only the fifth tropical cyclone to have crossed from the Atlantic to eastern Pacific basin intact and the first to have done so in 20 years, according to Dr. Klotzbach. (Note, prior to the 2000-2001 season, it was decided these "crosser" storms would keep the same name, rather than attain a different name upon arriving in a different basin). Otto was the first tropical cyclone to keep its Atlantic basin name during the cross over. 

More November Perspective

In November, tropical cyclones typically form where the waters are warmest. Thus, one cluster of storms forming in November is in the western Caribbean Sea.

A second broad area of formation is in a broad swath of the western and central Atlantic Ocean, sometimes spinning off from an old frontal boundary, sometimes transitioning from a cold-core low to a subtropical or tropical cyclone.

According to NOAA's best track database, there have been 36 Atlantic tropical cyclones of at least tropical storm strength in November from 1950 through 2015. Twenty of those became hurricanes. 

Just eight years ago, Hurricane Paloma reached Category-4 intensity, the second-strongest November hurricane of record, damaging or destroying nearly every building on Cayman Brac, according to the National Hurricane Center's final report. "Paloma" was retired from the Atlantic hurricane name list following this event.

(MORE: Retired Atlantic Hurricane Names)

In the period of record from 1851 to 2014, no tropical storm or hurricane has impacted the western Gulf Coast from Texas to Mississippi.

Systems that do develop across the Caribbean Sea can gain some organization, as the area has supported such late-season hurricanes as Kate in 1985 and Michelle in 2001. The former became the latest landfalling hurricane in Florida’s history on Nov. 21.

Since 1851, Florida has been impacted by eight tropical storms and hurricanes in November. The only other states with more than one November impact were also in the Southeast: Alabama, Georgia and North Carolina.

Typically, November tropical systems follow upper-level flow and cold fronts northeastward into the Atlantic Ocean. 

In 2015, Hurricane Kate was an early-November oddity, forming from a tropical wave that first soaked the Lesser Antilles, then becoming the farthest north hurricane so late in the season on record north of Bermuda. 

By the way, Atlantic Basin tropical storms even form in December, and January, on rare occasions. 

MORE FROM WEATHER.COM: Hurricane Otto, November 2016