It's a Busy Hurricane Season After All

Back in August, I was wondering whether this hurricane season would live up to expectations. Sea surface temperatures were at record highs, and the pre-season forecasts were dire...but for the most part, the storms themselves had not yet appeared. Well, that's all changed now. With Earl, Igor, and now Julia--which unexpectedly exploded into a Category 4 storm last night; pictured at right--we're already slightly above the long term average for an Atlantic hurricane season. We've had 11 named storms, 5 hurricanes, and 4 intense hurricanes (Category 3 or higher). The average year has 10 storms, 6 hurricanes, and 2 intense ones. So we're particularly high in the hurricane intensity category already, and there's quite a ways yet to go in the season. The strongest storm ever observed in the Atlantic, 2005's Hurricane Wilma, occurred in October. What all of this says to me is that we've been exceedingly lucky that ...