A look at this year’s hurricane season

MONTGOMERY, Ala. (WSFA) - It may be hard to believe, but another hurricane season has come and nearly gone. There are officially less than 20 days left before hurricane season ends on November 30th.

So where does 2022 stand as of right now? Well, since Nicole is a thing of the past and no storms are forecast to develop in the near future, we can look into what this year’s hurricane season has brought and compare it to normal.

There have been 14 named storms this year. — There have been 14 named storms this year.(WSFA 12 News)

A total of 14 names have been checked off the list this year, ranging from Alex back in June to Nicole here in November. That leaves 7 names left on the list this year: Owen, Paula, Richard, Shary, Tobias, Virginie, and Walter.

That 14 is almost exactly where we should be by the 11th day of November. So check that statistic off as “normal.” Of the 14 named storms, 8 of them became hurricanes. Typically we have 7 by this point in the year. So just a little above normal in that department. Of the 8 hurricanes this year, 2 of them reached major hurricane status. Usually there are 3 major hurricanes by mid-November, so we’re just below normal there.

Another statistic that is used quite often when looking at the activity level of a hurricane season is accumulated cyclone energy (ACE). So far this year we are running behind schedule when looking at ACE.

This year is running near normal in most categories regarding tropical activity. — This year is running near normal in most categories regarding tropical activity.(WSFA 12 News)

The year so far has produced 95 ACE, more than 20 ACE below normal. The normal hurricane season produces about 118 ACE by Veterans Day. If you ask me -- and probably everyone else -- there is absolutely nothing wrong with running below normal when looking at hurricane season numbers.

I mentioned no storms forming in the near future, but what about the rest of 2022? At this point there really isn’t a signal for another named storm in November. It’s very difficult to talk about December since it’s well into the future, but climatology tells us December won’t produce a named storm. So if I had to answer the “Will there be another storm this year?” question right now, my reply would be: It’s unlikely.

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