The Atlantic hurricane season officially lasts from June 1 through Nov. 30, when 98.4 percent of hurricanes have occurred in the Atlantic Basin.
AccuWeather Global Weather Center – November 27, 2019 – If there are no late surprises, the 2019 Atlantic Basin hurricane season officially will conclude Saturday, Nov. 30, with no further activity. AccuWeather “calls for no organized tropical activity across the basin the rest of this week and through the weekend,” said AccuWeather Senior Meteorologist Dan Kottlowski, the company’s top hurricane expert.
The season may come to a nondescript end, but it was unique in several ways.
During the course of the 2019 hurricane season, which officially began on June 1, there were 18 named storms, a total that included 10 tropical storms, two subtropical storms, two Category 1 hurricanes, one Category 2 hurricane and three major hurricanes (Category 3 or higher).
AccuWeather estimates the total damage and economic loss caused by named storms in 2019 to be $22 billion in the U.S. and an additional $5 billion in the Bahamas, according to AccuWeather Founder and CEO Dr. Joel N. Myers, based on an analysis incorporating independent methods to evaluate all direct and indirect impacts of the storms based on a variety of sources.
AccuWeather’s estimate includes, among other factors, damage to homes and businesses, as well as their contents and cars, as well as job and wage losses, farm and crop losses, storm surge to coastal areas, contamination of drinking water wells, infrastructure damage, auxiliary business losses and the long-term impact from flooding, in addition to the lingering health effects resulting from flooding and the disease caused by standing water.
The 2019 total includes AccuWeather estimates of three major storms, plus the combined damages and losses estimated from other 2019 storms.
AccuWeather estimated the economic impacts for three storms at the time they approached, predicting damages of $8 to $10 billion for Hurricane Barry, $10 billion total for Hurricane Dorian ($5 billion in the U.S., $5 billion in the Bahamas) and $8 billion for Tropical Storm Imelda.