One sign of the quiet season was the limited number of hours flown by NOAA and the U.S. But it died before reaching land because of the presence of dry air and strong wind shear. For example, Tropical Storm Karen formed in the Gulf of Mexico, where landfall in the U.S. Tropical weather systems depend on a plentiful supply of warm, moist air to form and intensify, and when these storms ingest exceptionally dry air, as many of the storms did this year, they can choke to death in a matter of hours or days. Super Typhoon Haiyan caused catastrophic damage in parts of the Philippines, killing at least 5,000. While the Atlantic was quiet, the Western Pacific Ocean gave rise to what was likely the strongest tropical cyclone on record at landfall. Those inhibiting factors include an unusual abundance of dry, dusty air blowing off Africa’s Sahara Desert, an unusually stable atmosphere across the tropical North Atlantic, with broad regions of sinking air and above-average wind shear, which refers to winds blowing in different directions or at different speeds with height. Meteorologists have cited several reasons for suppressing Atlantic storms this year. While preseason outlooks rarely, if ever, have pinpoint accuracy, they don’t usually miss by such a large margin. NOAA reaffirmed its above average prediction in an August update. Of those storms, NOAA projected that between 7 and 11 would achieve hurricane status (winds of at least 74 mph) and that 3 or 4 would become major hurricanes of Category 3, 4 or 5 (winds of at least 111 mph). In May, NOAA projected that there would likely be between 13 and 20 named storms (with sustained winds of at least 39 mph). The snooze of a hurricane season came as a surprise to forecasters, who had been expecting an above average to average season. The total number of storms this year was above the long-term average (1981-2010) of 12, but the number of hurricanes and major hurricanes were below their long-term averages of six and three.īased on an index, known as Accumulated Cyclone Energy or ACE, which incorporates the number, strength, and duration of all the tropical cyclones in the North Atlantic Basin, the season had the lowest seasonal total since 1983, at just 30 percent of average. None of these storms ever made it to major hurricane status. The 5-year period ending in 2013 has seen just two hurricane landfalls, although a third storm of hurricane intensity, Hurricane Sandy, made landfall mere hours after it had just been reclassified as a post-tropical cyclone, a distinction that matters more to meteorologists than the millions of residents impacted by the storm’s storm surge and high winds, both of which impacted the coastline while the storm was still classified as a hurricane.Ī total of 13 named storms formed in the Atlantic Basin this year, two of which - Ingrid and Humberto - became hurricanes. It’s not just major hurricanes that have avoided the U.S.
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