Climate Central - For Third Straight Year, 19 Named Atlantic Storms In Hurricane Season
The 2012 Atlantic Hurricane season officially came to a close on Friday, after four land-falling storms left coastal communities in tatters from Louisiana to New York. For the third straight season there were 19 named storms in the Atlantic, which is the third-highest level of storm activity observed since 1851. Ten of those storms went on to become hurricanes, only one of which, Hurricane Isaac, made landfall. But 2012 will long be remembered as the season of Hurricane Sandy. While it was officially classified as a post-tropical cyclone when it plowed into the New Jersey coastline on Oct. 28, it was by far the deadliest and most damaging storm of the season.
Since 1851, only two hurricane seasons — 2005 and 1933 — have been busier than 2010, 2011, and 2012. The Atlantic has been in a period of active hurricane activity since 1995, which is thought to be related to a naturally varying climate cycle involving warmer Atlantic sea surface temperatures, among other factors. According to NOAA, such periods of high activity typically last between 25 to 40 years.
Manmade global warming may also be having some small effects on tropical storms and hurricanes, but due to changes in hurricane observations since the 19th century, detecting such changes is extremely difficult. By using satellites and aircraft reconnaissance, scientists are now much more capable of spotting the short-lived, weaker storms that used to be missed by observation systems that were dependent on ship and coastal weather reports, for example. Computer modeling studies have shown that hurricanes in the North Atlantic Basin may become stronger as the oceans and atmosphere continue warming, but that there may be fewer such storms.
Despite the unusually high number of storms in recent years, the U.S. has now gone a record seven years since the last major hurricane of Category 3 intensity or above on the Saffir-Simpson Scale made landfall. The last major hurricane to strike the U.S. was Hurricane Wilma, which struck Florida on Oct. 24, 2005.
EDIT
http://www.climatecentral.org/news/atlantic-hurricane-season-ends-sandy-will-be-long-remembered-15310
