NASA’s Scientific Visualization Studio (SVS) has released an animated summary of the 2020 Atlantic hurricane season. The visualization starts on May 1, 2020 showing Sea Surface Temperatures and cloud cover. Precipitation data layer enters in as hurricanes are tracked throughout 2020. Hurricane strengths pepresented with the letter “T” for Tropical Storm and numbers for each storm’s respective strength along the hurricane tracks. At the end by all storm tracks are projected together on the surface.
The season stunned meteorologists and climatologists with 30 named storms while braking many records including:
* The earliest formation date for the third, fifth, and every storm after.
* Fifth consecutive season with at least one Category 5 hurricane.
* Most active September on record with 10 named storms.
* Second and final season after 2005 to use the Greek alphabet.
* Ties 1995 for a record 10 tropical cyclones that have undergone rapid intensification.
* Latest-forming Category 5 hurricane on record. (Iota)
* Only season with two major hurricanes in November. (Eta and Iota)
* Record-breaking fifth consecutive above-normal season.
* Record-breaking most storms to have formed before August through November.
* Record-breaking 6th straight season with at least one pre-season storm.
* Record-tying 2 named storms in May, 5 named storms in July, and 3 named storms in November.
* Record breaking most landfalls in the United States and Louisiana with 12 and 5, respectively.
Last time such a clearly massive hurricane season was experienced in 2005 Atlantic hurricane season with 27 named storms.
Each Atlantic hurricane season starts by June 1st and ends by November 30th. In May of 2020 forecasts were already warning authorities to be prepared for an overly active season as predicted by NOAA. It needs to be emphasized that anthropogenic global warming plays a great role in the frequency and intensity of hurricanes. For every degree Celcius of warming the atmosphere can hold 7% more moisture and our Earth has warmed 1.2 degrees Celcius within the last century. The National Weather Service noted that every mile of the U.S. Atlantic coast was under a tropical watch or warning in 2020.
Hurricane Isaias plowed through along the East Coast and created extensive damage in New England. State of Connecticut experienced 800,000 homes losing power. Outages lasted for more than nine days.
Isaias formed in the eastern Caribbean. Its trajectory passed over Hispaniola moving back into the western Atlantic. It then headed towards the Bahamas strengthening into Category 1 hurricane. It went over the southern and central Bahamas. Over Andros Island in the central Bahamas, Isaias weakened down to a tropical storm due the effects of southwesterly wind shear and the land interaction.
The following visualization from NASA SVS shows the development evolution and progression of the tropical storm Isaias.
Once the season starts and a series of tropical depressions line up along the Atlantic the National Hurricane Center relies on a fleet of Hurricane Hunters collecting essential data in order to follow the progression of the system.
A seemingly balancing counter influence in the Atlantic hurricane season is the regularly observed plumes of Saharan dust traversing the same waters as the tropical storms do. African desert dust is generally known to suppress the storm formation since the dry, particle rich air can reduce the formation of clouds and thus prevent hurricanes. In 2020, parallel to the over active storms massive plumes of dust were also detected by NASA and NOAA satellites.
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