abstract
| - The 2014 Atlantic hurricane season was the most damaging atlantic season on record. Even though the season had less storms than the 2005 atlantic hurricane season, the total number of Category 5 Hurricanes was more than double that of 2005 (2005 had 4). The 2014 atlantic hurricane season started with a very unusual storm named Aurthur, which developed into a hurricane in mid April due to unusually warm Gulf of Mexico waters and very low wind shear and made landfall south of Tampa, FL as a weak Category 1 hurricane. Tropical storm Bertha formed from an extratropical system that transitioned into a subtropical storm north of Bermuda on May 26. It attained winds of up to 65 mph before transitioning into a tropical storm. Due to a rise in wind shear, the storm weakened and dissipated west of the Azores by May 30. On June 5, another extratropical storm transistioned into a subtropical storm named Cristobal while east of Cape Hatteras, NC. Unlike Bertha, this storm did not transition to a tropical system due to 20 kt wind shear and cold and dry air entraining into the storm. The next storm, Dolly, was a very rare storm which formed west of Portugal and hit France as a Category 1 hurricane in late June before becoming extratropical 18 hours later. Edouard developed after a 3-week lull in activity 100 miles east of the Cape Verde islands. The storm affected the islands in Mid July, went westward over 7 days to the Windward Islands as a tropical storm, strengthened to a Category 2 hurricane while south of Puerto Rico, and made landfall in the Dominican Republic as a 105 mph hurricane. The storm then made landfall on Andros Island as a Category 2 hurricane 3 days later, and made landfall in Daytona Beach, FL as a 90 mph hurricane 48 hours later. The storm weakened to a tropical storm, went into the Gulf of Mexico and, due to wind shear, dissipated before making landfall in Pensacola. The season explosively intensified in August with 7 Hurricanes--6 of them Category 5s--forming within 3 weeks of each other. All 6 Category 5 hurricanes made landfall at Category 3 or stronger intensity. The strongest August Category 5 hurricane, the devastating Hurricane Isaias, made landfall near Miami, Havana and New Orleans at Category 4, 3 and 5 intensities respectively, caused the most destruction and made landfall in Miami, an area devastated by two prior hurricanes in the same month. September saw 10 systems, 7 hurricanes, 5 major hurricanes, and 3 Category 5 hurricanes. It includes a controversial Category 5 storm that made landfall in Eastern Cuba and Andros Island at high-end Categiory 5 intensities and reached an unusual 60 degrees North Latitude as a Category 3 hurricane in the Northeastern Atlantic before moving into the Faroe Islands. Amazingly, it retained tropical characteristics until making landfall in western Norway as a Category 1 hurricane undergoing extratropical transition. It then transitioned into an extratropical storm while in Norway. It also included an unprecedented African and Icelandic hurricane which formed in the Cape Verde islands and made landfall in Mauritania, the Azores islands and Iceland. In October there were 2 tropical storms, all of them turned to hurricanes. One, Hurricane Beta, came close to hitting Miami before recurving into the Northern Atlantic. It abrutly turned northwestward and hit Newfoundland as a Category 1 hurricane. November had no tropical cyclones, But December had one. Hurricane Delta came and hit areas affected by Hurricane Sandy more than 2 years ago. It was a massive and unusually intense Category 1 hurricane which hit New Jersey and combined with a winter storm.
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