With quiet conditions in the tropics now, it looks like we will officially end the Atlantic hurricane season with Otto being our last storm.
- Atlantic hurricane season ends on Nov. 30
- 2016 hurricane season busier than average
- 15 storms were named, 7 became hurricanes
November is the last month of the hurricane season, which was a fairly active one. We had three major hurricanes, four hurricanes, eight tropical storms and one tropical depression. That puts this season a bit busier than normal for the Atlantic basin — in fact, the first above-normal season since 2012, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.
The average is 12 named storms, of which six become hurricanes and three become major hurricanes.
This year, we had 15 named storms, of which seven became hurricanes (Alex, Earl, Gaston, Hermine, Matthew, Nicole and Otto) and three were major (Gaston, Matthew, Nicole).
Five named storms made landfall in the United States during 2016, the most since 2008. Hermine was the first hurricane to make landfall in Florida since Wilma in 2005. Tropical Storm Julia, which formed near Jacksonville in September, was unusual in that it formed over land, not water.
Here are the names, dates and maximum wind speeds we had in this year's Atlantic hurricane season:
Name |
Date |
Wind speed |
January 12-15 |
85 mph |
|
Tropical Storm Bonnie |
May 27-June 4 |
45 mph |
June 5-7 |
50 mph |
|
Tropical Storm Danielle |
June 19-21 |
45 mph |
Hurricane Earl |
August 2-6 |
80 mph |
Tropical Storm Fiona |
August 17-23 |
50 mph |
Major Hurricane Gaston |
August 22-September 3 |
120 mph |
Tropical Depression 8 |
August 28-September 1 |
35 mph |
August 28-September 3 |
80 mph |
|
Tropical Storm Ian |
September 12-16 |
60 mph |
Tropical Storm Julia |
September 13-19 |
40 mph |
Tropical Storm Karl |
September 14-25 |
70 mph |
Tropical Storm Lisa |
September 19-25 |
50 mph |
Major Hurricane Matthew |
September 28-October 9 |
160 mph |
Major Hurricane Nicole |
October 4-18 |
130 mph |
November 21-25 |
110 mph |
Central Florida will be dealing with the effects of Hurricane Matthew for years. The storm — the first category 5 hurricane in the Atlantic basin since Felix in 2007 — skimmed the Space Coast in the early morning hours of Friday, Oct. 7 as a category 3 storm. The eye stayed just slightly offshore, getting as close as 60 miles east of Melbourne, but then continued to hug the coast as it traveled north past Flagler County, then Georgia and North Carolina.
Matthew caused an estimated $24 million in beach erosion damage in Brevard County. In Flagler Beach, Matthew destroyed about 1.3 miles of historic State Road A1A, which could take up to a year to fix. About 750 sea turtle nests were lost to Matthew along the Brevard coastline. And at Kennedy Space Center, officials estimated the storm caused millions of dollars in damage.
Otto was the latest hurricane that formed in the Caribbean Sea on record, eclipsing the record of Martha in 1969, according to the National Hurricane Center. Since 1851, more than 100 tropical cyclones have been tracked in the month of November.