2020: HURRICANES. WILDFIRES AND FLOODING, OH MY - RECORD-BREAKING NATURAL DISASTERS

A running list of record-breaking natural disasters in 2020 https://t.co/qwdeVF4cm5 pic.twitter.com/UJNuZNLqEP

— Scientific American (@sciam) November 17, 2020

As if the Coronavirus was not bad enough, natural disasters are also breaking records this year.

The list from Scientific American:

"So far this year, the U.S. has had 16 natural disasters (including wildfires, hurricanes, tornadoes and drought) that each caused at least $1 billion in damage, tying the record set in both 2011 and 2017—with several months left to go. Such statistics have been compiled since 1980."

Below are the Hurricanes listed:

"This is only the second time that the official alphabetical list of hurricane names has been used up, meaning forecasters have had to move to the supplementary list of Greek letter names.

• The 2020 season has surpassed 2005 as the one with the most named storms on record: 29. (Named storms are those that reach at least tropical storm strength, with winds of 39 to 73 miles per hour.)
• Twenty-six of the 29 storms that formed so far this season were the earliest of their storm number to do so. For example, Delta was the earliest 25th named storm of any season, beating out Tropical Storm Gamma, which formed on November 15, 2005.
• When Tropical Storm Eta made landfall on Florida’s island of Lower Matecumbe Key on November 8, it became the only 12th named storm to hit the U.S. in a single season. It broke the record set just weeks earlier by Hurricane Zeta and Hurricane Delta before it. Prior to 2020, the season with the most landfalls was 1916, which had nine.
• Hurricane Zeta was the sixth hurricane to hit the U.S. this year, tying 1886 and 1985 for the most continental U.S. hurricane landfalls in a single season.
• Zeta was the record fifth named storm to hit Louisiana in a single season.
• Delta’s landfall was the first time a Greek-alphabet-named hurricane has made landfall in the U.S.
• Hurricane Eta became the strongest Greek alphabet-named storm in the Atlantic on Nov. 2, with sustained winds of 150 mph.
• September, which falls within the peak of the hurricane season, saw a record 10 named storms form within the month. (The previous record was eight.)
• In mid-September, there were five storms churning around the Atlantic Ocean simultaneously for only the second time on record.
• September 18 marked the second time on record that three named storms—Wilfred, Alpha and Beta—all formed on the same day. The only other time this was known to happen was on August 15, 1893, before hurricanes received official alphabetical names.

(The Atlantic hurricane database, managed by the National Hurricane Center, extends back to 1851. The lists of alternating male and female hurricane names have been in use since 1979.)"

 For the complete article visit Scientific American