Hurricane Wrap Up

Now that we've reached December, that means the 2005 hurricane season in the Atlantic is officially over (not that it prevents any new tropical storms from developing, it's just less likely). The last storm of the season, Tropical Storm Epsilon, is currently out in the middle of the ocean where it doesn't threaten any significant land masses. Weather.com offers some final statistics of what was by far the worst hurricane season on record. Epsilon is the twenty-sixth named storm of the season, outdistancing the previous best of twenty-one in 1933. We also had thirteen hurricanes (1969 had twelve), three of them registering category 5 (1960 and 1961 each had two category 5s). Almost every hurricane record was shattered this year. Let's hope 2006 doesn't extend these records even further.

UPDATE--Epsilon reached hurricane force, so the total for 2005 is now fourteen hurricanes, two more than 1969's previous high. The storm is still in the middle of the ocean, though, and continues to pose no risk to land.