The 2024 Atlantic hurricane season was the deadliest in nearly two decades [View all]

Source: NPR

November 29, 2024 5:00 AM ET


MIAMI — One of the deadliest and most costly hurricane seasons ever seen in the Atlantic officially comes to a close on Saturday. The six-month season brought 18 named storms and 11 hurricanes, five of which made landfall in the U.S. There were hundreds of deaths in the U.S., Central America and the Caribbean.

In the U.S., more than 150 people died from direct causes in the season's deadliest storm, Hurricane Helene, which tore through Florida and Georgia and brought severe flooding and destruction to North Carolina and in eastern Tennessee.

Before the season began, scientists warned there were likely to be a lot of hurricanes. Record-high ocean temperatures in the Atlantic two to three degrees warmer than normal and other atmospheric conditions set the stage for the above-normal activity.

In late June, Hurricane Beryl formed in the Atlantic and strengthened into a Category 5 storm with 165-mile-per-hour winds. It was the earliest in the season that a Category 5 hurricane had ever formed. It weakened significantly before landfall but caused severe flooding and deaths in the Houston area.

Read more: https://www.npr.org/2024/11/27/nx-s1-5205099/2024-atlantic-hurricane-season-ends