Record Hurricane Season Comes to an End
The beginning of December commences a celebratory time for many Floridians— the Atlantic Hurricane Season ends on November 30 each year. In 2020, we can be particularly thankful to see this hurricane season end. Hopefully this will not be ruined by any post-season storms.
The 2020 season set a record for named storms with 30, eclipsing the 28 storms in 2005. As a result, we learned what happens when the National Hurricane Center runs out of regular names. We proceeded further into the Greek alphabet than we knew was possible.
Florida regularly found itself in the warning cones of many 2020 storms. Fortunately, many areas of the state were spared from direct impacts, although Sally in particular caused significant damage in the Panhandle. Eta also caused damage in several areas of the state as its wandering path took it past South Florida and the Keys before turning inland and crossing the state. Louisiana did not fare as well, setting a record with five landfalls.
This year’s storms also showed rapid intensification unlike anything we’ve seen in prior seasons. Storms expected to make landfall as tropical storms or weak hurricanes seemed to gain immense strength overnight, defying projections.
We can hope for relatively little tropical activity between now and the beginning of the 2021 hurricane season on June 1. However, it’s increasingly common for storms to form outside of the recognized June 1 – November 30 hurricane season. Just this year, Tropical Storm Arthur formed in mid-May. This is the sixth straight year a named stormed organized before the official start of hurricane season.