ORLANDO, Fla. – Tropical Storm Sara was yet another system with a very bizarre life cycle.
Not only was it late to the party, developing and taking on named-storm status well into the month of November, but early model guidance suggested it would be the fourth hurricane, and possibly third major hurricane, for the state of Florida this season.
At the snap of a finger, however, that all changed.
I’m sure you heard several times somewhere across the social media realm, Florida was poised to receive yet another destructive storm before we close out the 2024 hurricane season. At what seemed like the drop of a hat, computer models switched up and a Florida landfall was entirely void.
From there, Sara stalled right up against the border of Honduras, where it dropped a couple feet of rain. Finally, it crashed ashore in Belize, where it fully fizzled and died per the National Hurricane Center.
The majority of its lifetime was spent spinning near perfectly still off the coasts of Belize and Honduras, where it sparked torrential rain and flood conditions.
Despite Florida dodging another November bullet, the first being Rafael, Sara affected over 47,000 people. At least 90 water rescues have been made, with more up and coming. Unfortunately, one fatality was reported as a direct result of Sara’s impacts.
The final advisory for Sara was issued at 4 a.m. Monday morning from the NHC, concluding our time tracking the storm on our maps.
So, naturally, given how much of a bang the second half of this season has given us, we have to ask: What’s next?
Looking ahead through time, whether it be five days, 10 days, 15 days, even into the month of December, models are looking scarce in terms of any signal for tropical activity. Usually this time of year we watch the Gulf of Mexico, the western Caribbean, which spawned both Rafael and Sara, as well as the southwest Atlantic off the coast of Florida, Georgia and the Carolinas.
Currently, not a single model echoes the faintest whisper of another named storm coming anytime soon. Maybe an ensemble member or two decides to conjure a low pressure somewhere, but nothing to raise eyebrows or focus energy.
From the looks of things, ranging from the most local of perspectives to the overall big picture weather pattern, it seems we’re finally saying goodbye to the costly and destructive 2024 hurricane season.
Several records were set, and history was made over and over again.
To put it into perspective, although 2024 didn’t live up to the named-storm forecasts presented before the season kicked off and was still outdid by our El Nino season in 2023, take a look at some of the stats in the graphic below:
As you can see, the phrase “less is more” really comes to mind when comparing the fourth most active hurricane season on record to what was considered a “bust” to many during the quiet phases of August and September.
Rest assured, the News 6 Pinpoint Weather team will continue to watch the Atlantic basin for any signs of late-blooming tropical trouble. But as it stands right now, looking ahead as far as we can comfortably, it confidently seems the tropics have finally started their winter slumber.
