The Atlantic Ocean has been acting up, resulting in a very busy hurricane season in the United States. The National Weather Service initially predicted 19-25 named storms, with 7-11 of them becoming hurricanes. They predicted that 3-6 of those hurricanes would have winds of 111mph or greater.

 A hurricane season is a list of predetermined hurricane names provided by the World Meteorological Organization, which is listed in alphabetical order, skipping the letters Q, U, X, Y, and Z. For almost every hurricane this season, 2020 has beat the record for the earliest ones. The latest storm to form is Tropical Storm Vicky. Fortunately, Vicky has virtually no chance of making landfall. However, being at the name of Vicky means that there is only one more storm to form this year(Wilfred-90% chance of forming (9/17/2020)) before we move on to the Greek letters! The last time this happened was in the 2005 hurricane season, which was when Hurricane Katrina destroyed the Louisiana and Mississippi Gulf Coast. That hurricane season was so active that it got all the way to the 6th greek letter (Zeta)! What’s even more interesting is that a normal hurricane season officially starts on June 1st, and officially ends on November 30th, but 2005’s hurricane season lasted all the way till January 5th! 

The latest prediction for 2020 indicates that we may see the same amount of storms, if not more than 2005! This is because in 2005, the hurricanes didn’t occur as rapidly as they have this year. Their season just lasted longer. 

Sources:

Gaches, Lauren. “Busy Atlantic Hurricane Season Predicted for 2020.” Busy Atlantic Hurricane Season Predicted for 2020 | National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, 21 May 2020, www.noaa.gov/media-release/busy-atlantic-hurricane-season-predicted-for-2020.

McClellan, Megan. “2020 Hurricane Season Uses the Greek Alphabet for Only the Second Time Ever.” KOKI, 18 Sept. 2020, www.fox23.com/news/science/2020-hurricane-season-could-use-greek-alphabet-only-second-time-ever/2K2GBUHGDRD2ZG5HEFW4P37DRM/.