2020 Atlantic hurricane season

2020 Atlantic hurricane season

The 2020 Atlantic hurricane season was the most active and the seventh costliest on record. The season featured a total of 31 tropical cyclones, all but one of which became a named storm. Of the 30 named storms, 12 made landfall in the contiguous United States, breaking the record of nine set in 1916. This season also featured a record 10 tropical cyclones that underwent rapid intensification, tying it with 1995.

About 2020 Atlantic hurricane season in brief

Summary 2020 Atlantic hurricane seasonThe 2020 Atlantic hurricane season was the most active and the seventh costliest on record. The season featured a total of 31 tropical cyclones, all but one of which became a named storm. Of the 30 named storms, 12 made landfall in the contiguous United States, breaking the record of nine set in 1916. It was also the fifth consecutive season in which at least one Category 5 hurricane formed. This season also featured a record 10 tropical cyclones that underwent rapid intensification, tying it with 1995. This unprecedented activity was fueled by a La Niña that developed in the summer months of 2020. Early officials in the U.S. expressed concerns that the hurricane season could exacerbate the effects of the COVID pandemic for U. S. coastal residents. As a result, the American Medical Association released an op-ed in an American Journal of the Medical Association, stating that there exists an inherent incompatibility between strategies for hurricane protection and sheltering population. The op-eds were written by Philip Klotzbach and his team of forecasters at Colorado State University, as well as forecasters from NOAA and the National Hurricane Center. For more information on the 2020 hurricane season, visit the NOAA’s Hurricane Season Outlook page or the National Weather Service’s Hurricane Center’s Hurricane Tracker page. For more hurricane news, visit CNN.com/HurricaneSeason. The hurricane season officially started on June 1 and officially ended on November 30, with the exception of Hurricane Iota, which impacted Central America on November 3 and 4, causing 6.68 billion USD in damage.

This also made 2020 the only season with two major hurricanes in November. Hurricane Eta ultimately led to the death of at least 189 people and caused 6. 68 billionUSD in damage, as it made landfall on the same general area of Central America that Eta had just weeks earlier and caused catastrophic damage on. October. Hurricane Sally impacted the US Gulf Coast, causing severe flooding, while Hurricane Teddy impacted Bermuda before affecting Atlantic Canada as an extratropical cyclone. Hurricane Zeta also passed through the Yucatán Peninsula before becoming the record-breaking fifth storm of the season to make landfall in Louisiana. It then became the first tropical cyclone since Hurricane Sandy in 2012 to produce accumulating snowfall. The Greek alphabet was used for only the second time, starting with Subtropical Storm Alpha, which hit Belize as a Category 1 hurricane. Hurricane Paulette made the first storm to do so since 2014, before reforming near the Azores and moving erratically before dissipating on September 23. Hurricane Theta became the record breaking 29th named storm and rapidly intensified to Category 5 intensity on November  16, the latest Category 5 hurricane on record in the Atlantic Ocean. It ultimately impacted the same area of the Caribbean as Eta, causing an overall USD 4. 725 billion in damage and 77 deaths. It also became the second season to use the Greek letter storm naming system, the first being 2005.