'Relentless' Atlantic hurricane season churns out weather records
Last Updated: Monday, December 1, 2008 | 12:51 PM ET
CBC News
The 2008 Atlantic hurricane season set several weather records, including for the number of strong storms and for repeatedly striking the same areas.
"It was pretty relentless in a large number of big strikes," said Georgia Tech atmospheric sciences professor Judith Curry. "We just didn't have the huge monster where a lot of people lost their lives, but we had a lot of damage."
The season, which began June 1 and ended Nov. 30, saw an unprecedented six consecutive named storms — Dolly, Edouard, Fay, Gustav, Hanna and Ike.
Also for the first time, a major hurricane, those with winds over 180 km/h, formed in five consecutive months from July to November.
Bertha also became the longest-lived storm in July after lasting for about 17 days.
Fay smashed records by hitting the same state, Florida, four times.
And for the first time, three major hurricanes — Gustav, Ike and Paloma — hit Cuba in a single season.
Gerry Bell, the top hurricane forecaster at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's Climate Prediction Center, said upper air currents caused storms to get bigger and focus on fewer places, mainly Cuba and the U.S. Gulf Coast.
Five of the six storms that hit the United States landed on the Gulf Coast.
But experts pointed out that 2008 was not the busiest season ever.
It had the fourth-most named storms — both tropical storms and hurricanes — in history with 16. The busiest season was in 2005 with 28 tropical storms and hurricanes.
The average season typically has 11 named storms, with just over half becoming hurricanes.
Bell said the 2008 season was busy mostly because we're in the middle of an "active era" during the natural high and low storm cycles.
Though some attributed the large number of intense storms to global warming, Bell said the science is not entirely clear on that.
With files from the Associated Press
