The 2024 hurricane season is so bizarre that Colorado State University hurricane expert Phil Klotzbach has called it the most unusually intense hurricane season in history.
There have been 11 hurricanes in the Atlantic this season, above the annual average of seven hurricanes.
The number of major hurricanes — Category 3 or higher on the Saffir-Simpson hurricane wind scale — was also higher than normal, at five major hurricanes compared to three major hurricanes recorded in normal years.
The 2024 hurricane season is expected to feature several costly storms, with total economic losses estimated at around $500 billion, according to AccuWeather's initial estimates.
But what makes the 2024 hurricane season so strange, according to hurricane forecaster Klotzbach and other scientists, is this: It's been an extremely calm season, followed by an extremely violent one.
For the first time in more than 50 years, the Atlantic Ocean is calm amid hurricane season. In a normal year, there are four named storms between August 13 and September 8, and at least two of those storms have the potential to become hurricanes.
Record-breaking hurricanes Andrew, Katrina, Laura, and Ida all formed during this part of the season. But the 2024 season did not produce a single named storm.
“We are trying to figure out exactly what happened and determine how well we can predict similar events in the future,” said hurricane forecaster Klotzbach.
The eerily quiet period of the 2024 hurricane season was broken by a series of intense storms, with three of them targeting the southeastern United States.
Hurricane Francine hit Louisiana while Helene became a devastating Category 4 storm, killing at least 214 people after making landfall in Florida, USA.
Days later, Hurricane Milton rapidly intensified, becoming one of the strongest hurricanes ever observed in the Atlantic basin.
According to Bloomberg, there are many theories about what caused such a powerful storm to form. Climate change is the leading suspect, as the Atlantic Ocean had a record or near-record temperature of 32 degrees Celsius when Milton formed, well above the 26 degrees Celsius threshold for a hurricane to form.
A new study by the nonprofit Climate Central determined that extremely warm waters are energizing hurricanes, pushing their maximum wind speeds much higher than expected.
Without the influence of climate change, Hurricane Milton could have peaked as a Category 4 hurricane before making landfall, while Helene would have peaked as a Category 3 hurricane.
Signs of a weak La Nina are starting to emerge before spring, said Klotzbach, a hurricane forecaster. Experts can’t predict whether La Nina will last into the summer, but if it does, it could add fuel to the 2025 hurricane season.
