NEQ Friday Review, V.4

Despite all the recent predictions for an extreme hurricane season ahead, never in history have meteorologists seen a run-up to a season as sobering as what we're looking at now. In fact, since the end of World War II ocean temperatures in the hurricane-prone waters of the Atlantic have never been warmer this early in the season than they currently are – not even prior to the epic 2005 hurricane season, which featured 28 named storms, including Katrina, Rita, Wilma, and several storms that pushed us into using the Greek alphabet.

With such worrisome forecasts looming, today's NEQ Friday Review will take a look back at the 2005 hurricane season to see what we might be up against over the next 183 days spanning June 1 through November 30 (and possibly longer).

• The 2005 hurricane season was the most active in 154 years of records being kept.
• 2005 hurricane season held the most named storms at 28.
• For the first time since the current naming system was introduced in 1953, all 21 names on 2005 hurricane season's list were used, forcing the National Hurricane Center to name 6 later storms after letters in the Greek alphabet.
  
• The 2005 hurricane season featured more hurricanes than any other season with a grand total of 15.
  
• The 2005 hurricane season featured the most Category 5 storms with a total of four, including Emily, Katrina, Rita and Wilma.
• The 2005 hurricane season featured the earliest Category 5 storm with Emily on July 17.
• The 2005 hurricane season featured the most retired storm names with a grand total of five, including Dennis, Katrina, Rita, Stan and Wilma.
  
• Hurricane Katrina, the 11th named storm of the 2005 hurricane season, now stands as the costliest U.S. hurricane at $96 billion dollars. Hurricane's Rita and Wilma also made the top 10 list.
• Hurricane Wilma, the 21st named storm of the 2005 hurricane season was recorded as the most intense Atlantic hurricane ever at sea.
• The 2005 hurricane season featured Tropical Storm Vince, the only storm to ever form so far east that it actually made landfall in Spain.
• Finally, the 2005 hurricane season featured tropical storm Zeta, which was only the second storm ever to bridge December and January.

Whew! What staggering facts! It seems that any of these would be hard to beat, and hopefully we won't do it!

Meanwhile, enjoy your Memorial Holiday Weekend and remember, hurricane season begins Tuesday, June 1!