A Historic Hurricane Season Comes to A Close

The start of December officially marks the end of Hurricane Season.

The Atlantic Hurricane Season came to a close Monday, and in 2020 fashion, it was one for the history books.

Forecasters predicted it would be a busy hurricane season, and it certainly was.

A record 30 named storms formed in the Atlantic, surpassing the previous record of 28 set in 2005 and blowing past the average number of named storms, hurricanes, and major hurricanes.

Both 2020 and 2005 were also both the only time in recorded history the National Hurricane Center needed to tap into the Greek alphabet when they ran out of letters on the original list of names.

While hurricane season officially begins on June 1 and runs through the end of November, 2020 got an early start with Tropical Storm Arthur forming on May 14.

In fact, 27 of the 30 named storms this year set a record as the earliest that particular letter had been used.

During the peak of the season in September, there were five storms churning in the Atlantic at the same time. That volume of activity had only happened one other time in history.

Another record was broken this hurricane season with 12 named storms making landfall across North America. Five of those storms made landfall in Louisiana alone: Cristobal, Laura, Marco, Delta, and Zeta.

Another area devastated by a one-two punch was Central America. Less than two weeks apart, Category 3 Hurricane Eta and then Category 4 Hurricane Iota ravaged the area, making landfall less than 15 miles apart. The relentless rain caused deadly landslides, flash flooding and mass destruction and killed more than 200 people across the region.

In Connecticut, we saw the wrath of Isaias, which left more than 750,000 customers without power -- some were in the dark for more than a week. There were hundreds of trees down, wires scattered across roadways and at least two deaths and five serious injuries were blamed on the storm.

And while hurricane season may be over, dozens of storms have formed both before and after the official season in the past.