2024 hurricane season shatters records

AccuWeather

AccuWeather hurricane experts predicted a supercharged 2024 season. What arrived was a deadly, explosive and historic year. Here's a look back.

Transcript

00:00It's a total mess, people have been swept away, business have been ruined, lives have

00:09been lost.

00:10It's been flooded before, but this is completely insane.

00:13There was probably 12 or so houses out on Eazell Beach that are no longer there.

00:18We don't know where we go from here.

00:21This season had trouble written all over it right from the beginning.

00:25Unfortunately, I must say the news isn't good.

00:28No, it's not good.

00:29We expect an above average number of named storms.

00:33We saw what was going to happen and that's why we use such strong language to alert people

00:38where we forecast an extraordinarily active season, a supercharged season with 20 to 25

00:45named storms and 4 to 6 U.S. impacts.

00:49Three words, Gulf of Mexico.

00:54That's how I'm going to remember the hurricane season.

00:56Why?

00:57Because that's where we had all the impacts.

00:59We had five hurricane impacts in the Gulf of Mexico, including the upper Texas coast

01:06with Barrel.

01:07Then we had Debbie, then we had Francine, then we had Helene, and then we had Milton.

01:14When you look at the season and you see the amount of damage and total economic loss,

01:20we're talking about $500 billion.

01:23So much of it was water damage from a tremendous storm surge that occurred during many storms

01:29right at the coastline and near the coastline, and then significant inland flooding.

01:36The season had started active, then we had that long lull, but this year, quiet.

01:43In fact, it was the longest stretch since 1968 where no new named storms had developed

01:51for a several week time period.

01:54AccuWeather hurricane experts issued our first track and intensity forecast for Francine

01:5924 hours before the government and any other source to provide people, businesses, and

02:04governments with valuable extra advance notice.

02:08Landfall of Hurricane Francine occurring right when the AccuWeather forecast projected it.

02:14AccuWeather was also the only source to most accurately forecast that Francine would intensify

02:20into a Category 2 hurricane prior to making landfall across Louisiana.

02:28Helene was a truly historic storm.

02:30It will go down as one of the most disastrous hurricanes in U.S. history.

02:36The sheer size of Helene and how it intensified didn't surprise us because we anticipated

02:43that was going to happen.

02:45A major hurricane continuing to intensify by all indications and we're concerned about

02:50a variety of serious catastrophic impacts right at the coast and inland in the coming

02:57days.

02:58We were the only source to call Helene a catastrophic flooding disaster across parts of the southern

03:05Appalachians.

03:06A catastrophic risk.

03:08That just shows you the urgency and how concerned we are about how dangerous this flooding situation

03:13can get across portions of the southern Appalachians where rain may fall at two to four inches

03:19per hour.

03:20It's too fast, too furious in the steep terrain.

03:23We're talking about roads and bridges that may be washed out and in fact communities

03:28which may be isolated for days.

03:31We use that wording specifically to help people, businesses, and governments understand just

03:38how dangerous and how unique and how serious the situation was going to be inland.

03:45It resembled a tsunami that just knocked everything down in its path.

03:50We lost everything, family, friends, homes, our jobs, everything, our animals.

03:56We have nothing.

03:57We got family members floating down the river.

04:00It's a mess man.

04:01There's trees down.

04:02There's water everywhere.

04:03Water's off.

04:04We don't have any power.

04:06Nobody has cash.

04:07You can't buy anything.

04:08You can't get any gas, so it's a disaster.

04:12Having two major hurricane landfalls is very rare in the United States coastline within

04:18just a matter of a couple of weeks.

04:20It was slow.

04:22It took its time.

04:25We sounded the alarm on this well in advance as well, but we were always pretty convinced

04:30that once again it was going to be the Florida Peninsula that would bear the brunt of yet

04:35another hurricane.

04:45Our thoughts are with the so many people whose lives were changed forever.

04:50These storms have cost hundreds of lives, tragically cost hundreds of lives and impacted

04:56thousands of families.

04:58The number of storms that we had outside of the heart of the hurricane season is something

05:04else.

05:06So despite the fact that there have been so many negative aspects of the season, we know

05:11that the AccuWeather forecast once again saved many lives and helped people best prepare.

05:18That's what we do here at AccuWeather.

05:20That's our mission and that's what we'll do on the next storm as well.

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