2020 Atlantic Hurricane season comes to a close after breaking records

November 30 marks the last official day of the Atlantic Hurricane season.

And for a nice change, the season is wrapping up with pretty quiet conditions across the Atlantic.

The 2020 Atlantic hurricane season though got off to a very early start with tropical storm Arthur. Arthur was the first named storm of the season and formed in the middle of May, well before the official start to hurricane season on June 1.

This year we have had 30 named storms, which meant that we had to use the Greek alphabet to name some of them. Using the Greek alphabet to name tropical storms is not only uncommon, but the only other year on record that we have had to do that was in 2005.

2005 was also the previous record holder for the most active hurricane season with 28 named stoms.

That same year, a record setting 15 of those storms became hurricanes. This year, 13 named storms became hurricanes, 6 of them were major hurricanes which means that they reached category 3 strength or higher. While these numbers fall just shy of setting a new record, they are still well above our normal 6 hurricanes for one season.

And during this very active hurricane season, we saw a record tying 10 rapidly intensifying hurricanes, which means that the storms the wind speed on the storm grew by at least 35 mph (30 knots) over a 24 hour period.

And just because hurricane season is over doesn't mean that another storm can't form in the Atlantic.

While it is uncommon to see tropical storms form during the off season. Every month has seen a named tropical storm or hurricane develop, including winter months like December, January and February.

Back in 2005, the Zeta was the last named storm of the season. It became a tropical storm on December 30 and lasted until January 6.