2008 Hurricane Season Wrap-Up

This years Hurricane season officially comes to an end this Sunday and the 2008 season certainately lived up to NOAA’s expectations as one of the more active seasons on record.

The 2008 Hurricane Season, which lasts from June 1 to November 30, saw a total of 16 named storms with eight hurricanes, five of which were major hurricanes (category 3 of higher). This fell right in range of NOAA’s August outlook that called for 14 to 18 named storms, 7 to 10 hurricanes with 3 to 6 major hurricanes.

“This year’s hurricane season continues the current active hurricane era and is the tenth season to produce above-normal activity in the past 14 years,” said Gerry Bell, Ph.D., lead seasonal hurricane forecaster at NOAA’s Climate Prediction Center.

Overall, the season is tied as the fourth most active in terms of named storms (16) and major hurricanes (five), and is tied as the fifth most active in terms of hurricanes (eight) since 1944, which was the first year aircraft missions flew into tropical storms and hurricanes.

For the first time on record, six consecutive tropical cyclones (Dolly, Edouard, Fay, Gustav, Hanna and Ike) made landfall on the U.S. mainland and a record three major hurricanes (Gustav, Ike and Paloma) struck Cuba. This is also the first Atlantic season to have a major hurricane (Category 3) form in five consecutive months (July: Bertha, August: Gustav, September: Ike, October: Omar, November: Paloma). (source: NOAA)

For more information on Hurricanes visit NOAA’s National Hurricane Center HERE.