The 2023 Atlantic basin hurricane season ends Thursday with 20 named storms, the fourth most since 1950, the National Weather Service says, although Louisiana saw no impact from named storms this year.
Those include seven hurricanes, three of them major.
The average season has 14 named storms, with seven hurricanes and three major hurricanes.
Three storms made landfall in the United States this year:
- Tropical Storm Harold at South Padre Island, Texas
- Tropical Storm Ophelia at Emerald Isle, North Carolina
- Hurricane Idalia at Florida's Big Bend
Idalia arrived as a major Category 3 storm and was responsible for an estimated $2.5 billion in damage. Five people were killed, according to records.
The 2023 season was initially expected to be near or slightly above normal for activity, because of the start of El Niño in June.
While that climate pattern could mean more storms, it also blows a lot of wind shear over the Atlantic, making it harder for hurricanes to form. The jet stream moves further south during El Niño, which helps push storms away from the East Coast.
“The Atlantic basin produced the most named storms of any El Niño-influenced year in the modern record,” said Matthew Rosencrans, lead hurricane forecaster at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's Climate Prediction Center. “The record-warm ocean temperatures in the Atlantic provided a strong counterbalance to the traditional El Niño impacts.”