Looking Back at the Notable Developments of the 2022 Atlantic Hurricane Season

Posted: December 8, 2022 2:44 pm

The 2022 Atlantic hurricane season officially wrapped up on November 30, making this the perfect time to look back on the most significant storms of the year and what distinguished this season from others. The season ended with 14 named storms, eight of which strengthened into hurricanes. Here is a look back.

Quiet August

While the season started off typically, the action significantly quieted down in August. A lull in the activity is not entirely unusual, however, the mid-summer drought of 2022 was particularly quiet, lasting through much of July and all of August. It is usually the second half of August that sees some of the greatest number of new developments.

There were no named storms in all of August, marking only the third time in recorded history that this happened. The dry spell was blamed on strong areas of high pressure anchored over Europe and the western part of the U.S. during the peak of the summer. The high in Europe triggered a wide area of dry air to move into the tropics, prohibiting storm creation.

A large zone of vertical wind shear located in the south-central Atlantic also contributed to the suppression of tropical development in both August and into September. Due to these factors, the entirety of the Atlantic basin did not see any storms from July 3 through August 30 with the streak finally coming to an end with the formation of Danielle in the Atlantic.

The elongated dry spell seemed particularly notable on the heels of three consecutive seasons of higher than average development. Although forecasters had been predicting that the 2022 season would not equal the number of storms produced during the 2021 season, a stalling out of this magnitude was not expected.

One thing that forecasters got right was the prediction of a major hit on the U.S. in 2022. Now let’s look at Hurricane Ian.

Deadly Hurricane Ian

There is no doubt that Hurricane Ian is what most people will remember when recalling the 2022 season. Despite a quieter than normal hurricane season, all it takes is one major storm to put the year on the record books.

What turned into a near Category 5 Hurricane Ian formed on September 24, moving across Cuba before pushing into the exceptionally warm waters of the Gulf of Mexico and strengthening further. The storm went through a period of rapid intensification before moving into southwest Florida as a monster high-end Category 4 hurricane.

Ian hit the barrier islands of Lee County before moving onto the mainland, unleashing its fury on the popular resort areas of Fort Myers Beach and Sanibel Island on September 29. The storm is responsible for at least 139 deaths in Florida with 62 of these reported in Lee County.

Local officials came under fire for not issuing evacuation orders with enough advance notice. Up until a day or two before landfall, the storm had been predicted to hit well north of where it eventually came on shore. The shift in the track of the storm caught many residents off guard, not leaving them time to evacuate their homes.

Fort Myers Beach was left inhabitable after winds measuring 150 mph tore off roofs and flattened many structures. The immense storm surge triggered widespread flooding well inland.

Total damage estimates from Hurricane Ian now sit at between $180 billion and $210 billion. While coastal areas bore the brunt of Ian’s impacts, areas inland also saw staggering amounts of rainfall. For instance, Orlando International Airport reported 13.20 inches of rain, translating to more than twice the average rainfall amount for all of September.

Double Whammy With Hurricane Nicole

The Sunshine State was still cleaning up from the devastating damage left by Ian when another storm started brewing in the ocean on the other side of the peninsula. Hurricane Nicole hit the east coast of Florida about six weeks after Ian moved through the state. Although Nicole only rang in as a Category 1 storm, it hit a part of the coast still dealing with a battered shoreline thanks to Ian, amplifying the damage further.

Another fact to note about Nicole is that it hit on November 10, a time of the season when storms of this magnitude are far less likely. In addition, Nicole got its start as a subtropical storm that did not pack as much of a moisture punch. It was the winds that made Nicole especially dangerous. The storm’s eye measured about 60 to 80 miles in diameter, well above the typical average of 20 to 40 miles. In contrast, the eyewall of Hurricane Ian only measured 35 miles at its widest point.

Looking Back at Hurricane Fiona

Puerto Rico also experienced its first hurricane landfall since the notorious Hurricane Maria of 2017 when Hurricane Fiona slammed into the U.S. territory on September 19. According to the Associated Press, over 100,000 residents of the island were left without water services due to the torrential rain.

While Fiona was only a Category 1 hurricane when it hit Puerto Rico, it was strong enough to inflict damage in areas still building back after Maria. The island was battered with sustained wind speeds of 130 mph along with up to 20 inches of rain falling in some areas.

But Fiona was not done after exiting Puerto Rico. The storm then traveled to the Turks and Caicos, striking as a Category 3 hurricane before barely missing a direct landfall on Bermuda. Fiona then traveled to the north, eventually coming on shore at Nova Scotia’s Canso Peninsula as the equivalent of a Category 2 storm. The storm will go down in history as one of the most powerful tropical weather events to impact Atlantic Canada.

Fiona will be most remembered as the longest-lived storm of the season, lasting nine days as a named feature with five of those days as a hurricane.

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