Hurricane Season 2007 Officially Ends

The 2007 Atlantic hurricane season is officially over. (Hurricane season runs from June 1st through November 30th.) Predictions earlier in the year had been for an increased and very active season. So, how did the 2007 hurricane season compare to the predictions?

The 2007 hurricane season began about 3 weeks early with Andrea. At the time, it seemed the 2007 predictions for an active season would ring true. However, there were originally 15 to 17 named storms predicted, but this information was later downgraded by the Climate Prediction Center to 13 to 16 storms.

Overall, the 2007 Atlantic hurricane season was not the overly active season that was predicted. While the United States was spared from a massive hurricane landfall, several storms still did damage. In addition, Hurricanes Dean and Felix hit Central America with intense category 5 force.

In all, there were 14 named storms with only 2 categorized as major hurricanes. (3 to 5 were expected.) Predicting hurricane seasons is a very difficult task. All in all, one hurricane, one tropical storm and three tropical depressions struck the United States:

• Tropical Depression Barry came ashore near Tampa Bay, Florida on June 2nd
• Tropical Depression Erin hit Texas on August 16th
• Tropical Depression Ten hit the western Florida panhandle on September 21st
• Tropical Storm Gabrielle hit North Carolina on September 9th
• Hurricane Humberto hit the upper Texas coast on September 13th

In addition, several other records or significant events deserve mentioning:

Fact 1 Eight storms formed in the Atlantic Basin in September. This ties with the September 2002 record for having the most storm formations during any given month.

Fact 2For the first time in recorded history, two Category 5 hurricanes made landfall in the same season. Hurricane Dean hit the Yucatan Peninsula on August 21st, followed by Hurricane Felix on September 2nd, near Punta Gorda, Nicaragua.

Fact 3With a central pressure of 906 millibars, Hurricane Dean had the third lowest pressure at landfall.

Fact 4Hurricane Humberto grew from a tropical depression with top winds of 35 mph into a hurricane with winds of 85 mph within 24 hours making it one of the fastest developing hurricanes in recorded history.