ORLANDO, Fla. – Tropical Storm Sara dissipated on November 18, 2024. Despite never making hurricane status, let alone becoming a major hurricane as numerous model guidance suggested the days leading up to its formation, it still wreaked havoc on our neighbors in Central America.
That’s only a small fraction of what’s unfolded from June 1 until now.
There were lots of moments this hurricane season where we were left scratching our heads wondering, “Is the season over? Will it ever actually get started?”
Alberto was the latest tropical storm to form in the Atlantic basin since 2014, with Tropical Storm Arthur forming as late as the first of July.
Alberto was getting closer and closer to beating that record for us, with it slowly forming off the Central American Gyre by June 19 of this year. From there, being as broad as it was, it attempted to strengthen some before crashing westward into central Mexico. Folks from Mexico to as far east as New Orleans, Louisiana, received very intense flooding as a result of Alberto. The destruction we’d yet to realize was only just beginning.
Next came Hurricane Beryl. An anomaly of a storm if there ever was one.
Beryl set countless records, from furthest east hurricane, strongest hurricane at that point in time, first category 5 in history to name a few.
After ravaging the windward islands of the Caribbean, Jamaica and its first major landfall into Belize and the Yucatan Peninsula, it set its course for Texas. Beryl did fall apart considerably during its time over the Yucatan, but managed to regain hurricane strength before hitting Houston almost head on with damaging winds and severe flooding. Let’s not forget the extensive tornado outbreak that occurred along its eastern side. Prolific tornado events alongside hurricane landfalls were a consistent chord the season, not only with Beryl.
In total, we had 18 named storms this hurricane season. Eleven became hurricanes, and a whopping five total major hurricanes developed. Only one of the major hurricanes actually did not make landfall at all. There were a total of only three “fish storms,” those being Gordon, Joyce and Kirk, which likely achieved category 5 intensity but was not upgraded by the National Hurricane Center.
With damage estimates still coming together down in Honduras, Belize and the Yucatan of Mexico from Tropical Storm Sara, 2024 is on track to earn its spot as the SECOND most destructive and costly season of all time. Believe it or not, which may come as a shock to native Floridians, but 2004 and 2005 don’t hold a candle to 2024.
A quick comparison between last hurricane season, which was somewhat of an anomaly in itself, helps put things into perspective as 2023 is still fairly fresh in many memories. Take a second to marinate on the statistics in the graphic below.
Despite a lot of the trademark “bust season,” or “the forecast is always wrong,” and especially “they say that every year” comments in circulation across the social media-sphere, 2024 was eye-opening and sobering for millions.
2024 attempted to go toe-to-toe with 2004, 20 years prior, with multiple systems landfalling in Central Florida in such a short period. Debbie led the way in early August, followed by major Hurricane Helene at the end of September, and lastly major Hurricane Milton rounding out Florida’s season the second week of October. Floridians were battered and bruised after such an onslaught, especially favoring the west side of our viewing area.
Thankfully, we can collectively take an enormous sigh of relief, and focus on the holiday season ahead. Those of us still recovering can graciously continue working toward a return to normalcy despite dealing with several hurricanes in one fell swoop during this hurricane season.
The tropics are closed, conditions have become far more hostile than they’ve been since before the season opened, which is to be expected especially after the first big dose of polar air inundating the peninsula. We will begin discussing next hurricane season, and some strange signals already popping up for the future, over the coming months.
But until then, 2024 serves as a fateful reminder of the old phrase, “It ain’t over, till it’s over.”
