Records have already been broken, and hurricane season just started
(CNN)The Atlantic hurricane season is already one for the record books and it’s only just getting started.
With an early jump-start to the season, a record number of named storms, and a storm reaching states that don’t normally see tropical systems, this season is off to a fast and interesting start.
Record three named storms
Before the season officially began on June 1, we already had two named storms: Arthur and Bertha, which is impressive in and of itself. Then we added Cristobal, the third named storm of the season, and that pushed us into the record books.
“We did set a record for the earliest third named storm formation date on record, breaking the old record set in 2016,” says Phil Klotzbach, a research scientist at Colorado State University.
This means that this year was the earliest a named storm that starts with the letter “C” has formed.
Even more impressive: All three of those storms had a direct impact on the US. The latter two made a direct landfall on US soil; Bertha in South Carolina, and Cristobal in Louisiana.
“Historically, the odds of any named storm making US landfall is about 1 in 4, so the odds of two consecutive named storms making landfall is 1 in 16,” Klotzbach says. “Of course, the storms we’ve seen so far are typical for early season storm activity. Generally, they’ve been short-lived and fairly weak.”
For many meteorologists, this doesn’t come as a surprise since forecasts were calling for a very active season.
“We knew this hurricane season was shaping up to a be busy one, with every seasonal hurricane forecast group calling for above-average activity, and we did not have to wait long for things to get rolling,” says Brandon Miller, CNN meteorologist.
If you blinked, you likely missed Bertha
Bertha was a sneaky storm that formed only one hour before making landfall in South Carolina. At 9:30 a.m. on May 27, Bertha made landfall just east of Charleston with maximum sustained winds of 50 mph.
The bigger issue with Bertha was the flooding it caused for Florida while it was still just a tropical disturbance. Miami started off the month of May in a moderate drought level, but thanks in part to moisture from Bertha, the city ended the month with its wettest May on record. Unfortunately, because so much of this rain came in a short period of time, this triggered flooding throughout many streets. Read more:
https://www.cnn.com/2020/06/14/weather/hurricane-season-2020-records-forecast-june/index.html
