Good Riddance, 2012 Hurricane Season
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NASA GOES Project(NEW YORK) — The 2012 hurricane season, a time period that produced 19 named storms, including 10 hurricanes and one post-tropical cyclone called Sandy, officially comes to an end on Friday.
The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) says 2012 was an above-average year for storms. The average annual number of named storms is 12, with six being the average yearly number of hurricanes. The hurricane season runs from June 1 to Nov. 30.
The past season marks the second consecutive year that the mid-Atlantic and Northeast suffered devastating impacts from a named storm: Sandy this year, and Hurricane Irene in 2011.
This year also included tropical storms Beryl and Debby in Florida and Hurricane Isaac in Louisiana.
Sandy was not officially a hurricane when it made landfall in New Jersey last month — it is officially categorized as post-tropical Cyclone Sandy — but it certainly delivered hurricane-level death and devastation.
New Jersey is asking the federal government for some $30 billion in aid to help rebuild, while New York state has petitioned Uncle Sam for $39 billion in rebuilding assistance.
Laura Furgione, acting director of NOAA’s National Weather Service, says this year proves that it’s “wrong to think that only major hurricanes can ruin lives and impact local economics.”
NOAA notes that for the seventh consecutive year, no major hurricanes — those storms labeled Category 3, 4 and 5 — hit the U.S.
The only major hurricane this season was Hurricane Michael, which was a Category 3 storm that stayed out in the Atlantic.
The federal agency says it will release its pre-season outlook for the 2013 hurricane season in May.
Copyright 2012 ABC News Radio