Satellite Meteorology

For Grade 7-12

8

Wild Weather

Hurricanes - VII

The 2020 Atlantic Hurricane Season topples 2005

The 2020 Atlantic Basin hurricane season saw the most tropical storms since records began, surpassing 2005. The first storm of the 2020 season, Tropical Storm Arthur, formed on May 16th and was followed by Tropical Storm Bertha on May 27th. The busy season continued and the predetermined list of 21 names was used up by September 18th with Tropical Storm Wilfred. From there, nine more storms formed that were assigned given Greek alphabet letters. This has only happened once before - you guessed it - in 2005. In total, there were 30 named storms in 2020, and 10 formed in September! Of those 30 tropical storms, 13 became hurricanes and 6 were major hurricanes (Category 3 or higher).

Following the 2021 season, the National Hurricane Center retired the use of the Greek alphabet to name hurricanes.

For a recap of the record breaking 2020 Atlantic hurricane season, Watch the video below

This Satellite Meteorology Course was developed at the Cooperative Institute for Meteorological Satellite Studies (CIMSS) located within the Space Science and Engineering Center (SSEC) at the UW-Madison. Funding was provided by the Wisconsin Space Grant Consortium (WSGC) and NOAA/NESDIS.