Another devastating hurricane season officially comes to end

Hurricane season officially ended Friday but, for a second straight year, generated costly and deadly storms that ravaged the U.S. coast.

While not as active as “the hurricane season from hell” the year before, the 2018 season spawned two terrible storms in Hurricanes Florence and Michael, which will be long remembered for their devastating toll in the Carolinas and the Florida Panhandle.

Florence and its devastating rains, measured in feet, engulfed eastern North Carolina, turning interstates into rivers and communities into lakes. Fifty-three fatalities were blamed on the disaster.

Michael, with its 155-mph winds and storm surge over 15 feet tall, decimated the zone from Panama City to Mexico Beach. The region is still recovering. The storm has been linked to 60 deaths.

Counting Harvey, Irma, and Maria in 2017, Michael in 2018, and Typhoon Yutu last month, which smashed into the Northern Marianas (a U.S. territory), five Category 4 or stronger tropical cyclones have struck U.S. soil in the past two years, which is likely unprecedented.

By definition, 2018 was an active Atlantic hurricane season for the third time in a row.

In all, 15 named storms formed, and of those, eight became hurricanes. Of those, two became major hurricanes (defined to be Category 3-plus+ on the Saffir-Simpson Wind Scale). The average numbers during a season are 12.2 named storms, 6.5 hurricanes, and 2.7 major hurricanes.

Next year’s list of names is a repeat of the 2013 list (beginning with Andrea, Barry and Chantal), but will include a new name, Imelda, to replace Ingrid, which was permanently retired.