2020’s Epic Hurricane Season

 

Category 5 Hurricane Iota (Source: TropicalTidbits.com)

The 2020 hurricane season began before its official start on June 1 for a sixth consecutive year. The first named storm of 2020 was named “Arthur” on May 16.  Prior to 2020, 2005 had been the undisputed record-holder for busiest Atlantic hurricane season on record.  There are some key similarities and differences between the 2005 season and the 2020 season-to-date.

Earlier this morning, Hurricane Iota was upgraded to an extremely powerful – and rare – Category 5 hurricane as it churns in the western Caribbean Sea toward landfall in Central America.  With sustained winds of 160 mph and a minimum central air pressure of 917 millibars (mb), it became the Atlantic’s first Category 5 November hurricane since 1932.  Iota is the 30^th named storm of the 2020 season and second major hurricane to develop in November.  No prior season has had more than one major hurricane on or after November 1.  Earlier this month, Hurricane Eta, a powerful Category 4 storm, had been the strongest hurricane of the 2020 season. 

Including Hurricane Iota, a total of 30 tropical storms formed in 2020, of which 13 became hurricanes, including six major ones.  With Iota being the thirteenth hurricane of the season, it gives 2020 the second highest seasonal hurricane total behind only 2005 that had 15.  However, there have been 30 named tropical storms so far this season, compared to 28 in 2005.

The first named storm of 2005 was “Arlene” and developed on June 8 – more than three weeks later than the first named storm developed in 2020.  That means the 2020 season got started nearly a month earlier than the 2005 season and has maintained its very active pace.  Multiple records for earliest storm occurred in 2020, such as when “Laura” was named a tropical storm on August 21.  That made Laura the earliest twelfth named storm of season by eight days, breaking the 1995 record held by “Luis.”

Despite the fact that both the 2005 and 2020 Atlantic hurricane seasons occurred with weak to moderate intensity episodes of La Nina, there are two key differences.  While there has been a near identical number of major hurricanes this season (six) compared to 2005 (seven), the seven major hurricanes in 2005 included four Category 5 hurricanes (Emily, Katrina, Rita and Wilma).  Just this morning, Hurricane Iota was upgraded to Category 5 intensity but 2020 will still finish with fewer Category 5 storms than 2005.  However, Hurricane Iota has made 2020 the fifth consecutive Atlantic hurricane season there has been at least one Category 5 hurricane.  That’s the longest such streak on record.

More tropical storms and hurricanes made landfall in the United States this year than during any other year on record.  Tropical Storm Eta became the 12^th named storm to make landfall this season.  By comparison, eight storms made landfall in the United States in 2005.  However, since that included catastrophic storms like Katrina, Rita and Wilma, the 2005 season finished as one of the costliest on record.  This season won’t be as destructive as the 2005 season was despite the higher number of landfalls. 

Finally, it’s worth noting that the overall number of tropical storm and hurricane landfalls in a given season is partially a function of where they develop.  If a majority develop close to shore (e.g., Gulf of Mexico or off the southeast coast of the United States), then that automatically increases the probability of landfall.  Hurricane season runs through November 30.