There have been 30 named storms and 13 hurricanes this year, the most active Atlantic season on record.
The 2020 hurricane season, which brought destructive storms from Central America to the Gulf Coast of the United States and beyond, has proved to be one for the record books. The storms began before the hurricane season officially kicked off, with the formation of Tropical Storm Albert in mid-May, two weeks before the official start of the Atlantic season on June 1. In August, midway through the six-month season, scientists upgraded their outlook to say 2020 would be “one of the most active seasons,” and said they expected up to 25 named storms by the time it was over. By November, even that upgraded expectation was exceeded: There have now been 30 named storms — 13 of them hurricanes — breaking a record set in 2005, when 28 storms grew strong enough to be named. Fifteen that year became hurricanes. The latest storm, Hurricane Iota, was swirling toward Central America, a region still recovering after a hit from Hurricane Eta two weeks ago. Iota, now a Category 4 hurricane, was expected to make landfall on the border of Nicaragua and Honduras on Monday night and was forecast to produce catastrophic winds and dump up to 30 inches of rain in the area all week. Iota, a Category 4 hurricane approaching Central America, became the latest storm this season. Before Iota, there was Theta, the season’s 29th named storm, breaking the annual record set in 2005, the year Hurricane Katrina hit the Gulf Coast. In September, when Tropical Storm Wilfred formed in the eastern Atlantic Ocean, it exhausted the list of prepared storm names and pushed meteorologists to the 24-letter Greek alphabet to name the next storms, only the second time meteorologists resorted to Greek letters.
