3 Surprising Facts About This Year’s Atlantic Hurricane Season

By Trisha VanBuren, Critical Response Specialist, EagleView.

As storm season records continue to break everywhere, here’s what you need to know to stay on top of the latest news.

Storm season records are being broken all across the globe. The 2020 Atlantic hurricane season has already entered the double digits of named storms and has become one of the busiest storm seasons in human history.

Hurricane season officially lasts from June 1 to November 30, meaning we’re right in the thick of it now. With most major storms in recent years coming in the latter half of the season, now’s the time to educate yourself about what has happened already, what’s likely to happen and what you can do to ready yourself.

Even for those who stay on top of the news, here are three trends that have, and will, define the 2020 hurricane season:

It’s off to a historic start – and there are no signs of stopping

This year’s Atlantic hurricane season kicked off rapidly – with three named storms (Tropical Storm Arthur, Tropical Storm Bertha and Tropical Storm Cristobal) in the bag on the day storm season officially began – and it hasn’t cooled off in the slightest.

Tropical Storm Josephine became the earliest ‘J’-named storm in history earlier this month and Tropical Storm Kyle did the same a few days later. To top that off, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration recently predicted up to 25 storms when all is said and done. They’ve never made a prediction that high.

Like, ever.

Safe to say, no matter the final number, we’re in for a very busy season.

Though Hurricane Isaias was only a category 1 storm, it still did plenty of damage

Two of the Atlantic storms that have reached the hurricane designation are Isaias and more recently, Laura. Although Isaias only reached category 1 level sustained winds, the storm made its presence known all along the Eastern seaboard from July 30 to August 6.

(Oak Island, NC after Hurricane Isaias. Photo: The News & Observer)

The National Weather Service confirmed that Hurricane Isaias’ outer rain bands spawned a total of 37 tornadoes through Maryland, Delaware, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Connecticut, North Carolina, South Carolina and Virginia.

RMS predicts that total insured losses from Hurricane Isaias will be somewhere between $3-5 billion in the United States alone – which is especially high given that Hurricane Laura, a Category 4 storm when it made landfall in the U.S., is expected to cost between $4-9 billion.

Forecasters believe a La Niña event is likely

The NOAA released a La Ninña Watch in July and recently increased the odds of an event occurring this fall to 60 percent.

A La Niña typically occurs when ocean temperatures in the Pacific are cooler than normal, as opposed to an El Niño event (the opposite). More importantly though, a La Niña weakens upper-level westerly winds, creating less vertical wind shear – which is the main ingredient for hurricane development, along with warm sea surface temperatures:

('Warm' is considered to be at least 26.5 degrees Celsius - as you can see, the Atlantic currently fits the bill)

Nothing is certain yet, but it’s important to keep an eye on this development, as it could bolster an already historically busy storm season.

Learn more about EagleView in their RoofersCoffeeShop® Directory.