10 infographics that detail the crazy 2020 hurricane season
Updated Dec 7, 2020 4:17 PM EDT
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The insanity of the 2020 Atlantic Hurricane Season has come to an end, and we've written a great wrap-up story, so I'm not going to rehash the whole season here. Instead, I'd like to show you some graphics that showcase the 2020 season.
Record Breaking Hurricane Season
AccuWeather
Keep in mind that everything in this blog is so far, as of Dec. 1, if any year were to spawn additional storms past the end of the season, it would be 2020 (December tropical storm history at the bottom of this blog). Also, records mentioned here are from 1850 forward, although the most reliable records begin around 1970 because before that we didn't have weather satellite coverage. Without any further ado, here are 10 infographics and maps that illustrate the crazy 2020 Atlantic Hurricane Season:
1: The Tracks
Here it is, in all its glory, the map of all 30 (breaking the record of 28 from 2005) Atlantic tropical storms and hurricanes of 2020. Below are a couple of additional track maps.
2020 Atlantic Hurricane Tracks
AccuWeather
NHC 2020 Hurricane Tracks
NOAA
Wikipedia 2020 Hurricane Tracks
WikiPedia
2. The Names
We ran out of English alphabet names at #21 (Wilfred) and had to use the Greek alphabet, for only the second time in history. So far, we have gone nine letters into the Greek alphabet, with 15 letters left. What happens if we reach the end of that? Nobody knows. The formation date of almost every storm this year beat previous records for earliest letter formation, including the previously-record 2005 season.
Atlantic Hurricane Names 2020
AccuWeather
Iota is the 30th named storm of the 2020 Atlantic hurricane season. That's now two more than the record set in 2005.
Iota, contrary to what one might assume toward the end of the season, is expected to rapidly intensify into a major hurricane. pic.twitter.com/oeQljx8Ud8
If you lived on the U.S. East or Gulf coast, you were under a hurricane advisory this season. Anywhere. From the Mexico border to Canada. In parts of the Tennessee, Carolina and Virginia mountains, this was the first tropical storm warning ever (records go back to 1986).
Hurricane Warnings 2020 (NOAA)
NOAA
4. The U.S. Landfalls
One of the most incredible stats from 2020 was that 12 storms hit the U.S., not including Hurricane Eta's second landfall. Previously, no more than nine storms had done that in one season.
U.S Tropical Storm & Hurricane Landfalls 2020
AccuWeather
5. The Close Landfalls
Even more incredibly, two sets of landfalls were extremely close together, with Laura and Delta hitting Louisiana just 13 miles and six weeks apart in the western part of the state, Cristobal and Marco hitting very close in the east, and Zeta in between, making five landfalls in one state, Louisiana, another new record.
6. The Satellite Shots
One cool thing about this year's hurricane season was that we had two high-resolution satellites watching storms in the U.S., taking pictures as often as every 30 seconds. NOAA put this collage together:
Atlantic Hurricane Season 2020 (NOAA)
NOAA
They also released this satellite animation of all the storms:
The five monster storms of the super-charged 2020 Atlantic season.
NOAAs hurricane hunter aircraft logged over 200,000 observations this year from dozens of storms, sending planes into the storms 86 times. Putting them all together on one map...
This is brilliant and gives me much joy. There's your tax money at work, folks! https://t.co/4peFYGdrCC
This infographic details other NOAA contributions, including another almost 200,000 observations by underwater drones!
2020 Atlantic Hurricane Season - NOAA
NOAA
8. The Rapid Intensification
Four storms set new records for their months for 24-hour rapid intensification this season. Category 5 Hurricane Iota intensified twice as fast as any storm had in November.
Central pressure in Iota has now fallen 61mb in the last 24 hours — far beyond the "rapid deepening" threshold.
Iota is the 4th rapidly deepening hurricane in 2020 — the most in a single Atlantic season.
NASA's Global Precipitation Measurement satellites had a field day in the storms. Their blogs detail each of the 3-D missions:
10. The December Tropical Storms (?)
While having Atlantic storms in November is not unusual, there have only been 10 storms that lasted into December and 15 that formed in December.
December Tropical Storms and Hurricanes (NOAA)
NOAA
There have only been two seasons that had a storm that formed in December and was still active in January: 1954 (Alice) and 2005 (Zeta). Four other years have had a named storm form in January, but it was considered the first storm of the year, rather than counting for the previous season.
Only one storm has ever made landfall on the U.S. in December -- a tropical storm in 1925. Only one December storm has ever been higher than a Category 1 hurricane -- an unnamed storm in 1888, which became a Category 2.
And now... this...
In Key West today, locals burned hurricane warning flags to celebrate the end of the 2020 hurricane season.
I’ve never heard of this tradition, but I like it. Good riddance, 2020 season. pic.twitter.com/QYLX62bw7j
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Weather Blogs / WeatherMatrix
10 infographics that detail the crazy 2020 hurricane season
Updated Dec 7, 2020 4:17 PM EDT
The insanity of the 2020 Atlantic Hurricane Season has come to an end, and we've written a great wrap-up story, so I'm not going to rehash the whole season here. Instead, I'd like to show you some graphics that showcase the 2020 season.
Record Breaking Hurricane Season
Keep in mind that everything in this blog is so far, as of Dec. 1, if any year were to spawn additional storms past the end of the season, it would be 2020 (December tropical storm history at the bottom of this blog). Also, records mentioned here are from 1850 forward, although the most reliable records begin around 1970 because before that we didn't have weather satellite coverage. Without any further ado, here are 10 infographics and maps that illustrate the crazy 2020 Atlantic Hurricane Season:
1: The Tracks
Here it is, in all its glory, the map of all 30 (breaking the record of 28 from 2005) Atlantic tropical storms and hurricanes of 2020. Below are a couple of additional track maps.
2020 Atlantic Hurricane Tracks
NHC 2020 Hurricane Tracks
Wikipedia 2020 Hurricane Tracks
2. The Names
We ran out of English alphabet names at #21 (Wilfred) and had to use the Greek alphabet, for only the second time in history. So far, we have gone nine letters into the Greek alphabet, with 15 letters left. What happens if we reach the end of that? Nobody knows. The formation date of almost every storm this year beat previous records for earliest letter formation, including the previously-record 2005 season.
Atlantic Hurricane Names 2020
3. The Warnings
If you lived on the U.S. East or Gulf coast, you were under a hurricane advisory this season. Anywhere. From the Mexico border to Canada. In parts of the Tennessee, Carolina and Virginia mountains, this was the first tropical storm warning ever (records go back to 1986).
Hurricane Warnings 2020 (NOAA)
4. The U.S. Landfalls
One of the most incredible stats from 2020 was that 12 storms hit the U.S., not including Hurricane Eta's second landfall. Previously, no more than nine storms had done that in one season.
U.S Tropical Storm & Hurricane Landfalls 2020
5. The Close Landfalls
Even more incredibly, two sets of landfalls were extremely close together, with Laura and Delta hitting Louisiana just 13 miles and six weeks apart in the western part of the state, Cristobal and Marco hitting very close in the east, and Zeta in between, making five landfalls in one state, Louisiana, another new record.
6. The Satellite Shots
One cool thing about this year's hurricane season was that we had two high-resolution satellites watching storms in the U.S., taking pictures as often as every 30 seconds. NOAA put this collage together:
Atlantic Hurricane Season 2020 (NOAA)
They also released this satellite animation of all the storms:
7. The Recon Missions
NOAAs hurricane hunter aircraft logged over 200,000 observations this year from dozens of storms, sending planes into the storms 86 times. Putting them all together on one map...
This infographic details other NOAA contributions, including another almost 200,000 observations by underwater drones!
2020 Atlantic Hurricane Season - NOAA
8. The Rapid Intensification
Four storms set new records for their months for 24-hour rapid intensification this season. Category 5 Hurricane Iota intensified twice as fast as any storm had in November.
9. The NASA GPM Fly-Throughs
NASA's Global Precipitation Measurement satellites had a field day in the storms. Their blogs detail each of the 3-D missions:
10. The December Tropical Storms (?)
While having Atlantic storms in November is not unusual, there have only been 10 storms that lasted into December and 15 that formed in December.
December Tropical Storms and Hurricanes (NOAA)
There have only been two seasons that had a storm that formed in December and was still active in January: 1954 (Alice) and 2005 (Zeta). Four other years have had a named storm form in January, but it was considered the first storm of the year, rather than counting for the previous season.
Only one storm has ever made landfall on the U.S. in December -- a tropical storm in 1925. Only one December storm has ever been higher than a Category 1 hurricane -- an unnamed storm in 1888, which became a Category 2.
And now... this...