2020 Atlantic hurricane season

Season overview

By almost any measure 2020 was the busiest Atlantic season on record. Thirty storms reached tropical-storm strength, more than the 28 of 2005, and the seven major hurricanes tied that year. The archive's accumulated cyclone energy of 180.4 puts the season well above average, and it was the fifth above-average Atlantic season in a row, the longest such run on record.

Conditions favoured storms for most of the year. Sea surface temperatures across the basin ran warmer than average, a La Niña developed during the summer, the West African monsoon was strong and vertical wind shear was weaker than usual, all within the warm phase of the Atlantic multidecadal oscillation that began in 1995. Every seasonal forecast called for an above-average year, yet each one, including those issued during the season, fell short of what happened.

The counts on this page come from the IBTrACS archive and use US-agency one-minute winds during the tropical stage, with subtropical winds of 34 kt or more included, which is why Subtropical Storm Alpha counts among the 30. Tropical Depression Ten, the only one of 31 systems that never reached 34 kt, is mapped but not counted. The NHC best-track totals give the same 30 named storms, 14 hurricanes and 7 major hurricanes; the NHC-based ACE figure of about 180.3 differs from the archive's 180.4 only because the site sums calendar-year, tropical-stage observations.

How the season unfolded

Activity began early. Tropical Storm Arthur formed on 16 May off the southeastern United States and passed near the Outer Banks, and Tropical Storm Bertha came ashore in South Carolina at the end of the month, making 2020 the sixth year running with a named storm before 1 June. In June Tropical Storm Cristobal combined with a broader Central American weather system to flood parts of Central America and southeastern Mexico before reaching the central US Gulf coast.

The pace then outran every earlier season. Tropical Storm Edouard in early July was the earliest fifth named storm of the satellite era, July produced five named storms to tie 2005, and Hurricane Hanna became the first hurricane when it reached 64 kt on 25 July and struck Padre Island, Texas, the same day. Tropical Storm Josephine in August and Tropical Storm Omar at the turn of September were each the earliest storm of their number on record, and the third named storm and every one from the fifth onward set a new early-formation mark.

Late August brought Hurricane Laura, the first major hurricane, alongside Hurricane Marco, which held hurricane strength for only a few hours over the Gulf of Mexico. September then became the most active month on record in the basin, with ten named storms. On 14 September Sally, Paulette, Rene, Teddy and Vicky were all active at once, the first time five tropical cyclones had shared the basin since 1971. Hurricane Paulette, the longest-lived system of the year, passed over Bermuda, weakened to a post-tropical cyclone and later regenerated near the Azores.

The regular list of names ran out on 17 September with Tropical Storm Wilfred, and the Greek alphabet took over the same day. October and November produced seven more named storms, five of them major hurricanes, more than twice as many majors as any previous season had managed over those two months. Tropical Storm Theta became the record 29th named storm on 10 November in the northeastern Atlantic, and Hurricane Iota, the last system of the year, lost tropical status on 18 November.

Strongest storms

The season's final hurricane was also its strongest. Hurricane Iota peaked at 135 kt with a central pressure of 917 hPa on 16 November in the southwestern Caribbean, after its pressure fell 80 hPa in 42 hours and its winds rose from 45 kt to 135 kt. It was treated as a Category 5 hurricane in real time, but post-storm analysis lowered it to a high-end Category 4, so the season produced no Category 5 storm, the first year without one since 2015.

Three other storms reached Category 4. Hurricane Eta peaked at 130 kt and 922 hPa on 3 November off northeastern Nicaragua. Hurricane Laura reached 130 kt and 937 hPa as it neared southwestern Louisiana on 27 August. Hurricane Teddy peaked at 120 kt on 18 September over the open central Atlantic, where it grew into an unusually large hurricane before reaching Nova Scotia as an extratropical cyclone.

Rapid intensification was a theme of the year, with ten storms undergoing it to tie the record set in 1995. Hurricane Delta gained 90 kt in 36 hours over the western Caribbean to reach 120 kt on 6 October, a rate only four other Atlantic storms of the satellite era had matched. Hurricane Epsilon strengthened from 55 kt to a 100 kt major hurricane southeast of Bermuda in October, and Hurricane Zeta intensified quickly in the Gulf of Mexico to reach 100 kt at landfall.

Notable landfalls and impacts

Eleven named storms made landfall in the contiguous United States, breaking the record of nine from 1916, and six of them came ashore as hurricanes, tying 1886 and 1985. Eight of the eleven struck the Gulf Coast. Louisiana took four landfalls, from Cristobal, Laura, Delta and Zeta, tying the state record from 2002.

Hurricane Laura was the most destructive US storm of the year. It made landfall near Cameron, Louisiana, at about 130 kt with a storm surge of up to 18 feet above ground level, the strongest hurricane to strike the state since Camille in 1969. The NHC report attributes 47 direct deaths to Laura (7 in the United States, 31 in Haiti and 9 in the Dominican Republic) and 34 indirect deaths in Louisiana and Texas, and puts US damage at about $19 billion in 2020 US dollars. Six weeks later Hurricane Delta came ashore near Creole, just east of Laura's landfall, at about 85 kt, adding roughly $2.9 billion (2020 US dollars) of US damage with 2 direct deaths in the United States.

Other US hurricanes spread the damage widely. Hurricane Isaias made its final landfall near Ocean Isle Beach, North Carolina, at 80 kt on 4 August, spawned 39 tornadoes and caused 12 direct deaths, with US damage including Puerto Rico and the US Virgin Islands of about $4.8 billion (2020 US dollars). Slow, erratic Hurricane Sally struck Gulf Shores, Alabama, at 95 kt on 16 September, bringing record river flooding, 4 direct deaths and about $7.3 billion (2020 US dollars) of US damage. Hurricane Zeta reached southeastern Louisiana near Cocodrie at 100 kt on 28 October, the latest in the year that a major hurricane has struck the continental United States, with 5 direct US deaths and about $4.4 billion (2020 US dollars) of damage. Hurricane Hanna caused at least 4 direct deaths in Mexico, 5 indirect deaths in Texas and about $1.2 billion (2020 US dollars) of damage across the two countries.

The worst loss of life came in Central America in November, when two Category 4 hurricanes struck northeastern Nicaragua less than two weeks apart. Hurricane Eta made landfall south-southwest of Puerto Cabezas at 120 kt on 3 November, and its rains caused catastrophic flooding and landslides; the NHC counts at least 165 direct deaths in Central America and southern Mexico, a figure it describes as uncertain and likely too low, with more than 100 people missing and about $6.8 billion (2020 US dollars) of damage in Central America. Eta later crossed Cuba and the Florida Keys, with 7 direct US deaths, all from flash flooding in North Carolina, and about $1.5 billion (2020 US dollars) of US damage. Hurricane Iota came ashore near Haulover, about 20 n mi south-southwest of Puerto Cabezas, at 125 kt on 17 November, over ground already flooded by Eta; it caused 67 direct and 17 indirect deaths, left 41 people missing and did about $1.4 billion (2020 US dollars) of damage.

Beyond the Americas, Subtropical Storm Alpha made landfall about 10 n mi south of Figueira da Foz on 18 September at 45 kt, the first known tropical or subtropical cyclone to strike mainland Portugal. Hurricane Nana and Hurricane Gamma hit Belize and the Yucatán Peninsula respectively, with Gamma's flooding rains causing 6 deaths, while Hurricane Epsilon passed well east of Bermuda but brought tropical-storm-force winds to the island.

Names, records and legacy

2020 was the second season, after 2005, to exhaust the 21-name list and turn to the Greek alphabet, which ran from Alpha to Iota. In March 2021 the World Meteorological Organization retired Laura, replacing it with Leah, and also retired Eta and Iota. It then dropped the Greek alphabet altogether, replacing it from 2021 with a supplemental list of 21 given names, so 2020 was the last season to use Greek letters. Isaias, Sally, Delta and Zeta were not retired despite their damage.

The season also unfolded during the COVID-19 pandemic. Officials in the United States worried early in the year that evacuation and crowded shelters would conflict with physical distancing, and in Central America more than 110,000 people displaced by Eta were moved into temporary shelters during the pandemic.