Students measure wind speed in New Orleans as Hurricane Isaac blows ashore in August. Via Associated Press
Today marks the end of a wet and wild hurricane season in the Atlantic region, one that produced a well-above average number of storms and had significant impacts on land but kept a surprising streak going.
There were 19
named storms in the Atlantic this year. Of those 19, 10 became hurricanes and one was Category 3 or higher.
Several storms had impacts on land, the most devastating of which this year was Sandy. The storm was post-tropical when it made landfall but by combining with other storm systems, but its destructive impacts were still felt over a large swath of the country.
Below is an incredible video from the NOAA Visualizations Laboratory that is a compilation of satellite data between June 1 and the end of November. All the storms in the season in 4.5 minutes.
You may have noticed that the first storm you see is Chris. What about A and B? Also, what was that surprising streak I mentioned earlier? Hurricane Season 2012 Fun Facts below:
- Storms Alberto and Beryl formed before the official start of hurricane season, a rare occurrence to have two named storms form in May.
- The only major hurricane, Michael, reached Category 3, but only spun out in the Atlantic and brought no impacts to the U.S. mainland.
- This year marks the seventh consecutive year where a major hurricane (Category 3 or above) has not impacted the U.S. mainland. Sandy had widespread and damaging impacts, and seemed major to me, but it only reached Category 1. (Well, at least to me that’s surprising, especially considering the level of activity in the next Fun Fact…)
- Since 1995, more than 70 percent of the hurricane seasons have been above normal, including 2012. But, there have been 10 years in the past 30 that have had higher activity than 2012.
- Accuweather.com has even more Fun Facts here. And in graphic form!
If we
look back to the NWS Hurricane Center’s prediction for this season, you’ll see they were a bit off. They predicted a “near-normal” hurricane season, with nine to 15 named storms. Four to eight were predicted to become hurricanes and one to three was expected to be a major hurricane. It’s not miles off, but forecasters point to an elusive El Nino that was predicted, but didn’t materialize. El Nino would typically hinder hurricane development in the Atlantic.
One of the storms that made landfall, Isaac, was kind enough to make its way up Louisiana and into Arkansas, bringing that state and us some much-needed rain. Arkansas definitely got the most benefit out of it, the start of the drought-busting in that state. We got some rain from it over here, but a drop in the bucket with our drought.
--Jerry Wofford
Don't forget to send in your snowfall total guesses for our winter. Find out about the contest
here, and send me your guesses at
jerry.wofford@tulsaworld.com.
An important addendum to the contest: Also send in the date Tulsa will receive the first measurable snow. That will be used as a tiebreaker. We have about 30 people so far, so your odds are still pretty good!
