A Hurricane season that could only happen in 2020 comes to an end today!  The 2020 Hurricane season will be one for the record books.  The previous record was 28 named storms back in 2005, including Hurricane Rita and Hurricane Katrina.  The typical  Hurricane season brings only 12 names storms.  2020 brought a record 30 named tropical storms, 13 of which became hurricanes and 6 major hurricanes.  We were very fortunate in the Crossroads to feel the effects of only 1 storm back on September 22nd and that was Tropical Strom Beta with sustained winds of only 45 MPH.  The only other storm to effect Texas was Hurricane Hanna, which made landfall as a  category 1 storm with 90 mph winds on North Padre Island on July 25.  Our friends in Louisiana were not so lucky.

Five storms made landfall in Louisiana this hurricane season, breaking the state records. Hurricanes: Cristobal, Marco, Laura, Delta, and Zeta all made landfall during 2020. Hurricane Laura made landfall with sustained winds of 150 mph, making it the strongest storm to make landfall in Louisiana since 1856.  The eye of Hurricane Zeta passed over New Orleans, making it the first eye of a hurricane to pass over the city in more than 50 years. Prayers to our friends to the east as they still are recovering from these storms.

We went through the entire list of Hurricane names, but why are there only 21 names when there are 26 letters in the alphabet?  Some of the less-frequently used letters in naming are left out.  As we experienced this year, the Greek alphabet was used to name subsequent tropical storms and hurricanes for only the second time in history. While hurricane season is officially over, this is 2020, keep your eyes on the tropics.

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