Weak Atlantic Hurricane Season Ends, Continuing Incredible Lull in Major Landfalling Storms in U.S.

Alexander Gerst, an astronaut with the European Space Agency, took this photo of Hurricane Edouard from the International Space Station in mid-September, 2014. (Source: Alexander Gerst) For the ninth year in a row, the United States has gone without a major landfalling hurricane. This continues an amazing streak: Going in to the 2014 Atlantic hurricane season, it had been 3,124 days since the last Category 3+ storm had made landfall in the United States, according to Roger Pielke, Jr., an environmental studies professor at the University of Colorado (where I also work). Meanwhile, the story in Pacific this year has been quite different. No lull there. More about that (and a climate perspective as well) in a minute. But first, some details about the Atlantic: Overall, the 2014 Atlantic Hurricane season ended with below average activity. In total, there were eight named storms, six hurricanes, and two major hurricanes. That compares with the 1981 - 2010 average of 12 named storms, 6 hurricanes, and 3 major hurricanes. Another measure, called Accumulated Cyclone Energy, or ACE, came in at just 63 percent of average. “A combination of atmospheric conditions acted to suppress the Atlantic hurricane season, including very strong vertical wind shear, combined with increased atmospheric stability, stronger sinking motion and drier air across the tropical Atlantic,” says Gerry Bell, lead hurricane forecaster at NOAA’s Climate Prediction Center. “Also, the West African monsoon was near- to below average, making it more difficult for African easterly waves to develop.” Despite these conditions, some major storms did manage to blossom. The image above, shot from the International Space Station, shows one of them: Hurricane Edouard, which attained Category 3 strength last September. But going nine straight years with no major hurricanes hitting the United States is astonishingly unusual. As Jeff Masters of Weather Underground puts it, this marks: