With the calendar turned to December, we now close the book on the unusually deadly and destructive Atlantic hurricane season of 2024. There were 18 named storms, 11 hurricanes, and five major hurricanes. An average season has 14 named storms, seven hurricanes, and three major hurricanes. The season’s accumulated cyclone energy (ACE) reached 162 (33% above average), which officially qualifies 2024 as a hyperactive season, according to the definition used by the Colorado State University seasonal forecast group – and that’s in spite of a month-long pause in activity at the climatological peak of hurricane season.
Record-warm waters and the lowest wind shear on record over the tropical Atlantic helped fuel two Cat 5s more than three months apart – Beryl and Milton – making 2024 the first season since 2019 with two category 5 storms. Beryl made a catastrophic hit on Carriacou Island, Grenada, on July 1 as a Cat 4 with 150 mph winds, making it the strongest landfalling Atlantic hurricane of 2024. Milton was the season’s strongest storm, peaking with 180 mph winds and a central pressure of 897 mb on Oct. 7 in the Gulf of Mexico, making it the fifth-strongest Atlantic hurricane on record (by pressure) and sixth-strongest by winds:
1. 190 mph (Allen 1980)
2. 185 mph (Dorian 2019, Labor Day 1935, Gilbert 1988, Wilma 2005)
3. 180 mph (Milton 2024, Mitch 1998, Rita 2005, Irma 2017)
4. 175 mph (nine storms, including Maria 2017, Katrina 2005, Andrew 1992, Camille 1969)
The 2024 Atlantic Hurricane Season in 60 seconds, from Alberto to Sara: pic.twitter.com/LdyZkLyUIk
— Jake Carstens (@JakeCarstens) November 20, 2024
The U.S. endures an epic pummeling by hurricanes in 2024
The season’s deadliest and most destructive hurricane was Hurricane Helene, which made landfall in Florida’s Big Bend region on Sep. 26 as a Category 4 storm with 140 mph winds. As documented by Michael Lowry, at least 243 people lost their lives in Helene across seven states, making it the deadliest hurricane to hit the mainland U.S. since Hurricane Katrina killed an estimated 1,392 people in 2005. Flood damage from the hurricane was catastrophic in western North Carolina, and the final damage tally is likely to make Helene one of the top-10 most expensive hurricanes on record.
Out of the eighteen named storms of this year’s Hurricane Season, an astonishing TWELVE of them made landfall somewhere in the Atlantic Basin. Of those twelve, FIVE made landfall in the contiguous United States at Hurricane strength. Insanity. pic.twitter.com/9vXPRqxQQr
— Backpirch Weather (@BackpirchCrew) December 2, 2024
Helene’s landfall gives the U.S. a record eight Cat 4 or Cat 5 Atlantic hurricane landfalls in the past eight years (2017-2024), seven of them being continental U.S. landfalls. That’s as many Cat 4 and 5 landfalls as occurred in the prior 57 years. The only comparable beating the U.S. has taken from Category 4 and 5 landfalling hurricanes occurred in the six years from 1945 to 1950, when five Category 4 hurricanes hit South Florida. Furthermore, the U.S. has now suffered a major hurricane strike in five consecutive years. Only one other time since accurate hurricane landfall records began in 1900 has the nation seen a streak that long: way back in 1915-1919.
Hot on Helene’s tail came Hurricane Milton, which made landfall on Oct. 9 in Sarasota, Florida, as a Cat 3 with 120 mph winds. Milton killed 25 people and inflicted tens of billions in damage. But as bad as Milton was, Florida got a major break when the eye of the storm made landfall just 20 miles south of the entrance to Tampa Bay, sparing Florida’s most vulnerable city from a massive 10-foot storm surge that would have cost tens of billions of dollars.
Read: Four ways climate change likely made Hurricane Helene worse
Read: Without climate change, Hurricane Milton would have hit as a Cat 2, not a Cat 3
Three other hurricanes hit the U.S. in 2024, all along the Gulf Coast:
Category 1 Hurricane Beryl made landfall in Texas on July 8. According to NOAA, Debby killed 45 people in the U.S. and did $7.2 billion in damage. After Beryl struck, some 400 Texans were hospitalized for carbon monoxide poisoning after turning to generators to keep their power and A/C going in July’s brutal heat.
Category 1 Hurricane Debby made landfall on August 5 in Florida’s Big Bend region with 80 mph sustained winds, then made a second landfall near Bulls Bay, South Carolina, as a tropical storm on August 8. According to NOAA, Debby killed 10 people and did $2.5 billion in damage.
Category 2 Hurricane Francine made landfall on Sep. 11 in central Louisiana with 100 mph winds. According to Gallagher Re, losses are at US$1.5 billion as of October 2024, but no deaths occurred.
Beryl and Milton had unusually intense tornado outbreaks associated with them, spawning a total of four EF3 tornadoes. Remarkably, only five EF3 tornadoes had previously been recorded in tropical cyclones going back to 1995. Beryl spawned a total of 67 tornadoes, mainly on July 8across eastern Texas, making it the fifth most prolific tornado-producing tropical cyclone on record. Milton spawned 46 tornadoes in Florida on Oct. 9, making it the prolific tornado-producing tropical cyclone in state history.
A weird progression to the season
As the 2024 Atlantic hurricane season began, hurricane experts viewed the upcoming season with dread: record-warm ocean temperatures, combined with the likely onset of a La Niña event in the Eastern Pacific were sure to cause a serious onslaught of hurricanes. La Niña conditions often lead to above-average hurricane seasons because of a decrease in wind shear, causing less disruption of the structure of a tropical cyclone. And warm sea surface temperatures tend to lead to above-average hurricane activity.
