2012 Atlantic hurricane season

A busy year that outran the forecasts

Every one of the season's 19 tropical cyclones reached tropical storm strength. Ten became hurricanes, but only Michael and Sandy reached major hurricane intensity of at least 96 knots, and none came close to Category 5. The accumulated cyclone energy of 132.6 units sat well above the 1981 to 2010 average of 92. The National Hurricane Center's best track, as summarized on Wikipedia, gives the same 19 named storms, 10 hurricanes and 2 major hurricanes as the archive's counts of one-minute tropical-stage winds.

Spring outlooks called for a quiet or near-normal year. Colorado State University forecast 10 named storms and 4 hurricanes in April, and NOAA's May outlook of 9 to 15 named storms reflected expectations of stronger wind shear, a cooler main development region and a possible El Niño. El Niño never took hold: Pacific conditions stayed neutral, and by August NOAA had raised its outlook, citing warmer-than-normal sea surface temperatures and the high-activity era that had begun in 1995. The season still finished above every published range.

It was also the first Atlantic season since 2006 without a hurricane of Category 4 strength or higher. Much of the energy came from storms that stayed over open water, including long-lived systems in the central and eastern Atlantic, while the most damaging storms of the year were ones that never reached major hurricane strength at the coast.

An early start, an empty July and a crowded August

The season began nearly two weeks before June. Tropical Storm Alberto formed off the Carolinas on 19 May and fizzled at sea after ingesting dry continental air. Tropical Storm Beryl followed late in the month, the first time since 1951 that two named storms had formed before the season's official start. Beryl came ashore near Jacksonville Beach, Florida, early on 28 May with 55 knot winds, the strongest pre-season tropical cyclone on record to make landfall in the United States.

June brought two more. Hurricane Chris developed from a low along a cold front near Bermuda and became a hurricane at 39.4 degrees north on 21 June, the farthest north any hurricane has formed during June. Tropical Storm Debby took shape in the Gulf of Mexico a few days later. No storm then formed in July, the first such gap since 2009.

Activity resumed on 1 August with Ernesto and did not let up. Eight tropical storms formed in August, tying the record for a single month set in 2004, with Leslie completing the total at the end of the month. On 30 August Isaac, Kirk and the depression that became Leslie were all active at once. Only two new storms, Michael and Nadine, formed in September, though several August systems carried into it, and October added five more: Oscar, Patty, Rafael, Sandy and Tony. Sandy outlasted Tony and became post-tropical on 29 October, ending the season more than a month before its official close.

The strongest storms

Hurricane Michael was the first major hurricane of the year. It grew from a non-tropical disturbance southwest of the Azores, strengthened by 50 knots as it accelerated ahead of an approaching trough, and peaked at 100 knots with a 964 hPa pressure on 6 September, about 890 nautical miles west-southwest of the Azores. The National Hurricane Center noted that it was only the fifth major hurricane of the satellite era to develop from a disturbance of non-tropical origin. A concentric eyewall and increasing shear weakened it soon afterwards, and it never threatened land.

Hurricane Sandy matched Michael's 100 knot peak as it made landfall in eastern Cuba early on 25 October, and its pressure fell lowest of any storm in the season, to 940 hPa, on 29 October shortly before it lost tropical characteristics off the mid-Atlantic coast. Among the rest, Hurricane Gordon reached 95 knots in mid-August, just short of major hurricane strength, and Hurricane Kirk peaked at 90 knots over the open central Atlantic.

Hurricane Nadine was the season's endurance record. It looped three times over the eastern subtropical Atlantic between 10 September and early October, reached hurricane strength on two occasions a record 13 days apart and brushed the Azores. Its 22.25 non-consecutive days as a tropical cyclone rank fourth among Atlantic storms on record.

Landfalls and impacts

Hurricane Sandy formed in the southwestern Caribbean on 22 October, struck Jamaica as a Category 1 hurricane, the island's first hurricane landfall since Gilbert in 1988, and then hit eastern Cuba at Category 3 strength. It grew enormously over the Bahamas, turned northwest toward the mid-Atlantic states and came ashore near Brigantine, New Jersey, at about 23:30 UTC on 29 October as a post-tropical cyclone with 70 knot winds, driving a catastrophic storm surge into the New Jersey and New York coastlines.

The National Hurricane Center counted at least 147 direct deaths from Sandy across the basin, including 72 in the United States, the most direct US tropical cyclone deaths outside the southern states since Agnes in 1972, with storm surge responsible for 41 of them. At least 87 more US deaths were indirectly linked to the storm, many from extended power outages in cold weather. Haiti reported at least 54 deaths from flooding, and Cuba 11. The report's preliminary estimate put US damage near $50 billion (2012 USD), second only to Katrina, and later tallies summarized on Wikipedia put Sandy's total damage near $68.7 billion (2012 USD). Losses in Cuba were estimated at about $2 billion (USD).

Hurricane Isaac spent most of its life as a tropical storm, crossing the Lesser Antilles and making landfall on Haiti's southwestern peninsula and in eastern Cuba before strengthening over the Gulf of Mexico. It became a 70 knot hurricane shortly before its first Louisiana landfall at Southwest Pass on 29 August, then slowed and came ashore again near Port Fourchon. The storm is blamed for 34 direct deaths, 24 in Haiti, 5 in the Dominican Republic and 5 in the United States, and US damage of about $2.35 billion (2012 USD). New levees built around Greater New Orleans after 2005 held in their first major test, but surge overtopped a non-federal levee in Plaquemines Parish.

Tropical Storm Debby came ashore near Steinhatchee in the Florida Big Bend on 26 June after days of torrential rain, with a peak storm total of 28.78 inches in Wakulla County and record river crests in northern Florida. It caused five direct and three indirect deaths, and preliminary total damage was estimated at $250 million (2012 USD). Hurricane Ernesto reached its 85 knot peak as it struck the southern Yucatán Peninsula near Majahual on 8 August and made a final landfall near Coatzacoalcos the next day; media reports attributed seven direct and five indirect deaths in Mexico to it.

Elsewhere, Hurricane Gordon passed over Santa Maria in the Azores on 20 August, causing minor coastal flooding but no significant losses, and Hurricane Leslie skirted Bermuda before reaching Newfoundland's Burin Peninsula as a powerful post-tropical storm on 11 September. The remnants of Tropical Depression Seven, which later became Tropical Storm Helene, were blamed for two deaths in Trinidad, and Hurricane Rafael caused one direct death in Guadeloupe.

Names and records

The 2012 list was the one used in 2006, and six names, Kirk, Oscar, Patty, Rafael, Sandy and Tony, appeared for the first time. In April 2013 the World Meteorological Organization retired Sandy because of the deaths and damage it caused, replacing it with Sara for the 2018 season. The 2012 season closed a run of three consecutive very active Atlantic years that began in 2010.