Hurricane Season Winds Down After Record 30 Storms | WeatherBug
Main Menu
Responsive menu icon

Hurricane Season Winds Down After Record 30 Storms

November 30, 2020
By WeatherBug Meteorologists
After the most active year on record, the 2020 Atlantic basin hurricane season is finally ending. While a storm could still form in December, the season officially ends on November 30, and what a doozy it was.
 
The hyperactive season got off to a quick start, with the first two named storms forming before June 1, the “official” start to the season. The U.S. coast was immediately at risk, with strong tropical storms Arthur and Cristobal targeting Florida and Louisiana, respectively, through the first week of June. July saw the first storm to affect the entire Eastern Seaboard as Tropical Storm Fay formed along the North Carolina coast, then chugged northward toward a landfall near Atlantic City, N.J.
 
As July plowed along, the first two hurricanes of the season formed. Hurricane Hanna was a late-bloomer, not forming until it was already zooming across the Gulf of Mexico but slammed into south Texas as a strong Category 1 storm. This was followed quickly by Hurricane Isaias, which pummeled the Carolinas, Mid-Atlantic and New England with heavy rain and more than three dozen tornadoes. August saw Hurricane Laura enter the Gulf of Mexico and intensify to a Category 4 storm just before crashing ashore in southwestern Louisiana. Laura would bring a storm surge of 17 feet, that reached 30 to 50 miles inland in some spots. This was the Pelican State’s strongest landfall on record, and Laura ended up producing more than $14 billion in damage.
 
September marks the peak of hurricane season, and this season’s peak exceeded all expectations with a record ten named storms forming – the most in any month on record. Notable storms included Hurricane Sally, which whipped the central Gulf Coast as a Category 2 storm before making landfall in Alabama; and Hurricanes Paulette and Teddy, each of which pummeled Bermuda. Even Europe was under fire from the tropics as Subtropical Storm Alpha formed in the eastern Atlantic and chugged ashore near Lisbon, Portugal, on September 18, killing at least one person.
 
October continued the onslaught of tropical activity, with five more storms forming, three of which became major hurricanes. Hurricane Delta moved across the western Caribbean and Gulf of Mexico, strengthening to Category 4 intensity in a mere 36 hours before slamming the eastern Yucatan Peninsula. Although it weakened as it continued its path northward, Delta moved ashore as a strong Category 2 storm in nearly the same spot as Hurricane Laura just two months earlier. It was followed up at the end of the month by another U.S. strike, this time from Category 2 Hurricane Zeta.
 
As the season turned toward its final month, two powerhouse storms were waiting in the offing. Hurricane Eta formed on Halloween, maintaining itself as a weak storm into November. Then, on November 2, Eta detonated into a major, Category 4 hurricane before slamming ashore near Puerto Cabezas, Nicaragua. Eta would then drift near Central America before looping across Cuba and the Florida Keys as a tropical storm about a week later. After regaining hurricane intensity, Eta would make one final landfall along Florida’s Gulf Coast on November 12.

However, 2020 went and saved the best for last. As Eta was dissipating off the Eastern Seaboard, one more tropical system was coming together. This one, Hurricane Iota, would become the season’s first and only Category 5 hurricane, topping out with winds of 160 mph on November 15. Weakening only slightly before landfall, Iota then slammed ashore near Puerto Cabezas, less than 15 miles south of Hurricane Eta. Dozens of people were killed in the torrential flooding resulting from the two storms.
 
Numerous records were shattered this year. Thirty named storms formed, exhausting the 21-name list for just the second time in history. Of those storms, a record twelve made landfall in the United States, including five alone in Louisiana. The strongest storm of the year, Hurricane Iota, became the latest Category 5 storm on record. The 13 hurricanes and 6 major hurricanes earned this season the number-2 position, trailing only the similarly active 2005 season.
 
The unusual trends of this hurricane season reached beyond the record books as well. At some point in the season, the National Hurricane Center issued a tropical storm or hurricane watch or warning for every state – and all but two counties – along the coast from Texas to Maine. Ten storms saw rapid intensification during their lifespans, in many cases gaining 50 to 80 mph of sustained wind speed in just 24 hours. This included Laura and Delta, both of which intensified from a Category 1 to Category 4 hurricane in less than a day
 
With the last two storms of the season being among the most devastating, it will likely be months if not years before the scope of the 2020 Atlantic hurricane season is known. More than 400 people were killed this season – the fifth straight year of fatalities in excess of 100 – with total damages of $40 to $45 billion.