Eta ties record for most storms in a year

The National Hurricane Center issued an alert May16 for Tropical Storm Arthur — the year’s first named Atlantic storm.

On Saturday, they put out a warning for Tropical Storm Eta — a tie at 28 for the most tropical or subtropical cyclones formed in a year.

National Weather Service meteorologist Dan Reilly expects to see that record broken, highlighting how unusual this so-called “hyperactive” season has been.

All summer, a grueling storm season kept Houston ian son edge. Hurricane Hanna hit Padre Island in July. Hurricane Laura grazed East Texas in August.

Tropical Storm Beta in September swamped Houston roads.

Overall, Houston came out lucky — but there was still nearconstant concern in the Gulf, said Matt Lanza, a meteorologist for the go-to Space City Weather blog.

And, like with the pandemic, storm fatigue gets hard to fight.

“After a while, you just get a little tired of dealing with it,” Lanza said. “Just speaking as a meteorologist, it’s exhausting.”

Before Eta, eight storms had already hit the U.S. Gulf coast— a lot for any year, said Jeff Lindner, meteorologist for the Harris County Flood Control District.

“It’s been really since Hanna in late July, even through October, which is somewhat rare for us, it’s kind of been non-stop,” he said. “Every two to three weeks, we’ve had a threat.”

To a degree, meteorologists expected a busy storm season. Among the reasons: warm sea surfaces and reduced vertical wind shear.

But they didn’t predict it would be quite this busy. The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration in May forecast up to 19 named storms.

In August, they upped that number to 25.

What the frequent storms mean is harder to pin down. To draw conclusions from one season to the next is difficult, Lindner said. And Lanza agreed. A busy 2020, he said, doesn’t necessarily guarantee a busy 2021.

Climate change researchers do expect that stronger hurricanes will become more common. More storms may also intensify rapidly, like Hurricane Zeta did, said John Nielsen-Gammon, the state climatologist.

But Nielsen-Gammon didn’t believe climate change affected this year’s total storm number in any obvious way. In fact, he finds studies show that hurricane numbers globally will stay the same or decrease.

And though there is some evidence of an increase in late-season storms, it’s not known if that is a long-term trend, he said. (Meteorologists were surprised to see Zeta hit so close to Texas so late.)

2020, already loathed for bringing theworld the coronavirus pandemic, has also set other records. Eleven storms made landfall in the continental United States, beating the record of 9 in1916. (Records go back to 1851.) Phil Klotzbach, a research scientist at Colorado State University, also found that six hurricanes hit the continental United States, tying records from 1886 and 1985.

The record for total formed storms was set in 2005, the year Hurricanes Rita and Katrina hit. By comparison, Lindner noted 2020 had fewer major hurricanes.

“It’s not all about the numbers,” he said. “It’s about the intensity. It’s about the size. It’s about the impacts of the storm.”

2005 was the only other time the Greek alphabet was used. (Q, U, X, Y and Z in the Latin alphabet are skipped.)

That year, Tropical Storm Zeta barely made it, forming Dec. 30. Forecasters later in post-season analysis found another storm they’d missed, bringing the year’s total to 28.

2020 still has weeks to go to surpass that record. And hurricane season, when most storms form, doesn’t end until Nov. 30.