Hurricane Preparedness Week 2010

May 23 - May 29, 2010

Hurricane Preparedness Week

Fig 1. 2009 Tropical Storm Summary - Courtesy NOAA

First in a Series ... Read Entire Series    May Archive

The goal of NOAA's Hurricane Preparedness Web site is to inform the public about the hurricane hazards and provide knowledge which can be used to take ACTION. This information can be used to save lives at work, home, while on the road, or on the water.

May 23 - History

We kick off the 2010 Hurricane Preparedness Week today with a look at the history. View the 2009 Tropical Cyclone Archive here. The 2009 Atlantic hurricane season produced nine named storms, of which three became hurricanes and two became major hurricanes. Contrasting this with the 50 year average (1950-2000) of eleven named storms, six hurricanes, and two major hurricanes, 2009 was only the second below normal year since the current high activity era for Atlantic hurricanes began in 1995.

Fig. 1. Tracks of Atlantic named storms during 2009. Shading corresponds to strength of maximum sustained surface wind speeds, with green indicating tropical depression intensity (< 39 mph), yellow indicating tropical storm (TS) intensity (39-73 mph), red indicating hurricane (H, cat. 1-2) intensity, and magenta indicating major hurricane(MH, cat. 3-5) intensity).

There was a sharp decrease in the number of landfalling named storms compared to 2008 with Claudette making landfall in the United States and Ida making landfall as a hurricane in Nicaragua.  Tropical storm Erika passed through the northern Caribbean Islands while weakening, and Hurricane Bill brushed Nova Scotia and Newfoundland.

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Some Infamous Atlantic Storms

• Hurricane Katrina (2005) – PDF – MS-Word
• Hurricane Gordon (1994)
• Hurricane Andrew (1992)
• Hurricane Hugo (1989)
• Hurricane Gilbert (1988)
• Hurricane Camille (1969)
• Other famous Atlantic storms (in our Hurricane History pages)

NHC Archive of Hurricane Seasons

Central North Pacific Hurricane History (1800s - present)

(Compiled by the Central Pacific Hurricane Center, Honolulu). 

We will continue coverage of Hurricane Preparedness Week by looking at some of the hazards starting tomorrow.  Additional Hurricane information can be found in our static Weather tab.