2020 - Atlantic Hurricane Season: A record-breaking season

• Main Authors: PROBST Pamela, ANNUNZIATO Alessandro, PROIETTI Chiara, PARIS Stefano
• Language: English
• Published: Publications Office of the European Union 2021
• Subjects: Eta; North Atlantic
• Online Access: https://publications.jrc.ec.europa.eu/repository/handle/JRC123923; https://doi.org/10.2760/00114

The 2020 Atlantic hurricane season was extremely active, with 30 “named storms” (tropical storm or higher strength), including 13 hurricanes, which is more than double the long-term average of 12 named storms and 6 hurricanes. Several records were set (e.g. number of named storms) and the Greek alphabet was used for the second time on record (in the past only in 2005) to assign a name to the tropical storms and hurricanes.The Atlantic hurricane season (North Atlantic Ocean, Caribbean Sea, and Gulf of Mexico) officially starts on 1 June and ends on 30 November, with the highest activity from August to late October. However, in 2020, two tropical storms formed in May, before the start of the season, and the last month of the season was particularly active with two major hurricanes: ETA and IOTA.The 2020 season is the fifth consecutive Atlantic hurricane season above-average and several conditions contributed to make the 2020 record-breaking season possible, including La Niña which developed during the peak of the hurricane season and enhanced the hurricane activity in this basin.Every year the tropical cyclones (TCs) affect millions of people around the world, including several vulnerable islands of the Caribbean area and Central America, leaving a trail of destruction that requires the international assistance of the humanitarian community. In this report, the 2016-2020 Atlantic hurricane seasons and the extremely active 2005 season have been analysed, considering the impact on the affected areas and the international humanitarian support. Moreover, in 2020, the COVID-19 pandemic emergency influenced the TCs preparedness and response activities, creating a multi-risk scenario and increasing the vulnerability.Since 2011, the Global Disasters Alerts and Coordination System (GDACS) estimates the impact of all the TCs occurring worldwide and timely issued RED alerts for the most destructive events, like for ETA and IOTA in 2020, which devastated Central America. JRC.E.1 - Disaster Risk Management