2020 Hurricane Season Expected to Be Most Active Since 1980s

The 2020 hurricane season is now expected to be the most active since at least the early 1980s, meteorologists at Colorado State University, a standard bearer for seasonal hurricane predictions, announced Wednesday.

The revised estimates predict the 2020 season will see 24 named storms, including 12 total hurricanes and 5 major hurricanes. Each of those predictions are about double that for a normal season, and include storms that have already occurred. 2020, which has already set numerous records for its early activity, still has about 90% of the official season ahead.

Even if 2020 sees fewer storms than the new prediction — which is the most dire in CSU's 37-year history — officials may still run out of letters with which to name storms and be forced to use the Greek alphabet for overflow since the letters Q, U, X, Y and Z are not used. The only other time officials were forced to use the Greek alphabet was 2005 which included five hurricanes (Dennis, Katrina, Rita, Stan and Wilma) so destructive their names have been retired from future use.

For a deeper dive: Weather Channel, The Hill, CBS, USA Today, News4JAX,WYFF4, WFLA, WMBF; Climate Signals background: 2020 Atlantic hurricane season

6 August 2020

EcoWatch