Hurricane Central

2017 Hurricane Season Named Storm Pace Rivals Most Active Seasons on Record, But There's a Distinct Difference

At a Glance

Seven named storms have formed so far in the 2017 hurricane season.
That matches the pace of some past historic hurricane seasons to date.
Many of 2017's early-season storms have been weak or short-lived.

The 2017 Atlantic hurricane season has matched the pace of some of the most active seasons on record when it comes to the number of named storms that have formed by early-to-mid August. However, merely counting how many storms have occurred as a comparison doesn't paint the whole picture.

Tropical Storm Gert became the seventh named storm of the 2017 Atlantic season on Sunday. Only three other hurricane seasons – 1936, 1995 and 2005 – have as many named storms before Aug. 13, according to Dr. Phil Klotzbach, a tropical scientist at Colorado State University.

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Those three seasons rank among the top 10 most active on record when examining the number of named storms over the course of an entire season. 2005 had the most with 28; 1995 and 1936 had 19 and 17 named storms, respectively.

To be clear, this doesn't mean 2017 will end up in that upper echelon of the most active Atlantic seasons, though forecasts call for an active remainder of the season.

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While 2017 has had a torrid start in terms of the quantity of named storms, many have been short-lived and/or weak. That is a distinct difference from the hyperactive 1995 and 2005 hurricane seasons.

Franklin is the only storm in 2017 to attain hurricane strength through Aug. 13, and that stint lasted only about 12 hours. The rest have been tropical storms, most of which had a life span of a few days.

The tracks of the seven named storms in 2017 as of Aug. 14.

Compare that to the 2005 season and you can easily see the difference through the first seven named storms. That record-breaking year had three hurricanes among its first seven, along with two tropical storms that were 5 mph away from attaining hurricane strength.

More importantly, two of those hurricanes in 2005 were long-lived and intense. Hurricane Dennis maxed out at Category 4 strength while Hurricane Emily became the earliest Category 5 on record in the Atlantic basin.

The full tracks of the first seven named storms of 2005. Notice how the paths for most are much longer and some are more intense than 2017.

A decade earlier, the 1995 season had a somewhat similar beginning. Three of the first seven named storms were hurricanes, including Felix which was a Category 4. In addition, three tropical storms maxed out just shy of hurricane strength.

Another measure called the ACE index also illustrates how 2017 is lagging behind thus far.

Long-lived, intense hurricanes have a high ACE index, while short-lived, weak tropical storms have a low value. The ACE of a season is the sum of the ACE for each storm and takes into account the number, strength and duration of all the tropical storms and hurricanes in the season. A season's ACE value doesn't necessarily reflect the severity of impacts to land in a given season.

The ACE Index for the Atlantic basin as of Aug. 14 was 8.3, which is about 69 percent of the 1981-2010 average for that date.

So despite the seventh named storm of the season forming about a month ahead of the 1966-2009 average, the ACE for this season to date is near 30 percent below average.

We are in the most active portion of the hurricane season. It's is a good time to make sure you have a plan in case of a hurricane strike. The Federal Alliance for Safe Homes has an excellent website to help you make your plan.

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