Historic hurricane season comes to an end

ALEXANDRIA, La. (KALB) - Hurricane season 2020 will be entered into the record books as the most active season on record.

This year, the Atlantic Basin had 30 named storms, 13 hurricanes and six major hurricanes. The active season was due in part to highly favorable atmospheric conditions for storm development.

“You have this combination of climate factors. That really sets you up for a potentially extremely active season as we saw this year,” says Gerry Bell, NOAA Lead Seasonal Hurricane Forecaster.

For only the second time since the previously most active 2005 season, the National Hurricane Center used the entire list of storm names and resorted to the Greek alphabet to name nine of this year’s storms all the way into November.

“It’s fairly rare to see a December storm but given the extremely active season we’ve had, we don’t want to rule that out,” Bell said.

A dozen storms hit the U.S. coastline this year, with Cristóbal, Marco, Laura, Delta and Zeta making landfall in Louisiana - a new record for the state.

“Quite frankly, it’s more than anyone should have to bear,” said Louisiana Governor John Bel Edwards in a press conference earlier this year.

In Cenla, Hurricane Laura’s winds caused the most widespread damage.

“The damage is widespread. Sometimes it may not look like that, but it is well spread,” said Pineville Mayor Clarence Fields in an interview after Laura made landfall.

Hurricane Delta led to historic flooding and Post-Tropical Storm Beta also brought heavy rainfall to Cenla.

“The water rose really, really quick. We got 15 inches in two days,” said one firefighter in an interview after Hurricane Delta.

In all, central and south Louisiana spent more than three week’s worth of time in the ‘Cone of Uncertainty’ during this unprecedented year.

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