A busy Atlantic hurricane season is now coming to a close
FORT A busy hurricane season that saw the National Hurricane Center in Miami issue the first-ever tropical storm warning for the coast of California and hurricane warnings as far north as Nova Scotia is coming to a close Thursday night.
The Atlantic basin had 20 named storms — the fourth-highest total since 1950. They include seven hurricanes, three of which became major hurricanes at a Category 3 or higher.
“The 2023 hurricane season does show that we can get impacts just about everywhere, » said Michael Brennan, director of the hurricane center. « We had a tropical storm affect Southern California, Hurricane Idalia make landfall as a major hurricane along the Florida Gulf Coast, and we had Ophelia affect the U.S. East Coast all the way up to New England, and we also had effects all the way up in the Northeast with Hurricane Lee making landfall in Nova Scotia. »
There were also multiple hurricane landfalls across Mexico, especially late in the season, including Hurricane Otis, a Category 5 storm which devastated Acapulco and killed dozens.
“It was a really busy season,” Brennan said.
The high number of named storms is part of a period of active storms dating back to 2017, he said.
