Hurricane Iba (2021) (Blackford)

Hurricane Iba was the strongest hurricane ever recorded in the Southern Atlantic. The fifth named storm, only hurricane and only major hurricane of the record-breaking 2020-21 South Atlantic hurricane season, Iba caused minimal damage during the course of it's lifetime.

It was also the longest lived and longest tracked tropical cyclone in the basins history, as well as the first of two major hurricanes in the basin to date.

Meteorological history
On February 13, a unusually vigorous tropical wave developed about 90 miles south of The Equator, it proceeded over the Amazon Rainforest, where a brown ocean effect allowed the wave to continue organizing.

The Marine Meteorological Center began tracking the tropical wave, and on February 17, it was classified as a tropical depression by the MMC.

The depression slowly moved south, being named Iba on February 19 as it attained tropical storm intensity. Shortly later it executed a loop, becoming a very rare hurricane for the South Atlantic. However, after only 12 hours at this intensity, the storm weakened back to a tropical storm, and finalized the loop on February 22.

The storm once again became a Category 1 hurricane early on February 23, before reaching a initial peak as a 100 mph Category 2 hurricane, tying it with Hurricane Catarina of 2004 as the strongest hurricane on record in the South Atlantic in terms of wind speeds.

However, it weakened slightly to a 95 mph Category 1, and later on February 23, the storm rapidly intensified into a 110 mph Category 2, making it the strongest hurricane on record in the basin.

Early on February 24, the system was noted to have become a Category 3 major hurricane with winds of 115 mph, making it the first on record for the basin. Continual intensification allowed Iba to peak around noon on February 25 with winds nearing 135 mph, making it a Category 4 hurricane off the coast of Brazil.

The storm underwent a eyewall replacement cycle that evening, and weakened to a minimal Category 3 hurricane by noon on February 26, before once again peaking as a minimal Category 4 hurricane late on February 26 with winds of 130 mph.

However, at this point the storm was interacting with a increasingly hostile atmosphere, which caused rapid weakening to ensue early on February 27. A intense dry air insertion into the storm further weakened Iba to a Category 2 hurricane by noon on February 27, and the storm pulled southeast that afternoon.

The storm then pulled a aggressive turn west, and weakened to a Category 1 hurricane, before further weakening to a tropical storm by midnight on February 28.

Later that day, the system became a tropical depression, and it diminished off the coast of Argentina on March 2.

Records
The storm was the strongest on record in the South Atlantic.