Much to the relief of the hurricane-weary residents of the Caribbean and Central American Nations, the 2020 Atlantic Basin Hurricane Season ended today, November 30th.
But, as viewers are aware, this season was particularly punishing with all the named storms and major hurricanes. The season set all the worst kinds of records: There were 30 named storms, and 13 of those storms became hurricanes. Of those thirteen, 6 became major hurricanes at Category 3 strength or higher. That's a little bit more than double the number that forecasters estimated at the start of the season.
Today we spoke via teleconference with the Senior Climatologist at the National Met Services about the 2020 Hurricane season:
Shanea Young - Senior Climatologist, National Met Service
"This season was an extremely active season, with about 30 named storms, 4 of which affected Belize indirectly or directly in the months of September and also November."
"As I said, there were 30 named storms, 13 of which were hurricanes, 6 becoming major hurricanes, which is well above average, compared to the 30-year average. Normally, on average,12 named storms are held within a season, with 6 of them being hurricanes, and 3 becoming major hurricanes."
"We had a La Nina event for the latter half of the hurricane season, along with warm sea surface temperatures in the Tropical Atlantic, and also the Caribbean, along with weak vertical shear, and weaker trade winds over the area."
"I think the last season where we probably had something similar was in 2005, if I'm not mistaken, where we had - before - the previous record for the number of named storms in the season."
Of the 30 storms that formed, Belize was affected by 4. Of those, only one, Hurricane Nana, made direct landfall on the country. Prior to Nana, Belize was impacted by the Eastern Pacific Tropical Storm Amanda, which crossed Central America into the Gulf of Mexico, and was renamed as the Atlantic Basin Tropical Storm Cristobal. That system dumped heavy rainfall across the country, which resulted in flooding.
And, right now, Belize is still recovering from floods caused by the torrential rains of major hurricanes Eta and Iota. The government estimates that these hurricanes caused damage and losses to the tune of 150 million dollars or more countrywide.
According to the Senior Climatologist, the rainfall numbers from these hurricanes measured 4 times more than the 30 year average at their different automatic stations. Here's that part of our conversation:
Reporter
"Is this a record number of rainfall and floods, or is it just an extremely, abnormally high one?"
Shanea Young - Senior Climatologist, National Met Service
"Well, definitely, for the month of November, it is a very above-average season. In terms of record, I would need to go back and check further, definitely, some daily records have been broken, over most stations, but especially those in the central and some northern areas, since the month of November."
"For the first event, Hurricane Eta, Belmopan, Cha Creek, Hershey, La Milpa, Libertad, and other stations, including here at the airport, did break their records, mostly around the 4th, 5th, and 6th of November, and also around the 17th to the 19th of November with Hurricane Iota. So, most areas did experience, based on at least our automatic stations at the moment, the daily extreme for those particular stations during those days appears to have been broken."
"For instance areas like Gales Point, they have received, so far, about 829 millimeters, for the month of November it's normally around 191 millimeters. And also, in the Baldy Beacon area, they also received about 895 millimeters of rainfall this month, where the average is normally around 231. And at the airport, similarly, a value of 841 millimeters has been recorded so far for the month, and the long-term 30-year average is normally around 213.8."
A press release from the Met Office says, quote, "The National Meteorological Service takes this time to encourage everyone to do a review of their 2020 hurricane plan, to see where their weaknesses and short-falls were so that they can be better prepared if the need arises in 2021." End quote.
