GREENSBORO, N.C. — The 2020 Atlantic Hurricane Season is officially a record breaker. Tropical Storm Theta formed on Monday night and pushed this year over the top for most named storms on record, passing the notorious 2005 Hurricane Season.
A total of 29 named storms have formed since May. That's a combination of tropical storms and hurricanes. The previous record was 28 named storms in 2005.
A total of 12 storms this year have become hurricanes, still shy of the record 15 hurricanes from 2005. There have been 5 major hurricanes this year (Cat 3+) which is still shy of the record of 7 from the 2005 season.
There are many parallels between the 2020 and 2005 hyperactive seasons. Both years are the only seasons that have "run out" of names, needing to flip the page to the Greek alphabet for additional storm names instead.
Of course, there are many different ways to measure how tough a hurricane season has been. Storms don't do any damage if they stay out at see. Unfortunately, many storms have hit the United States this year. A total of 12 storms have made landfall in our country, which is a record. Most of the damage has been done along the Gulf Coast, although Isaias hit North Carolina and continued to bring significant damage up the East Coast into New England.
At this time, there are two active storms: Tropical Storm Eta in the Gulf of Mexico and Tropical Storm Theta in the open Atlantic Ocean nearing Portugal.
Hurricane season isn't over yet. It continues through the end of November, but storms have formed on rare occasions in December as well. We'll continue to keep you updated if any additional storms form.
