8 Things We'll Remember from the 2019 Atlantic Hurricane Season

A hurricane season will always be known by the storms that make landfall and how severe they were, but the 2019 Atlantic hurricane season also had a few headlines from storms that didn’t come close to land.

The 2019 hurricane season was tied for the fourth most active on record by the number of tropical storms (18), getting to the "S" name for the first time since 2012. The season had a total of 18 tropical storms and six hurricanes, three of which strengthened to at least Category 3 intensity. This compares to the annual average of 12 tropical storms, six hurricanes and three major hurricanes.

But the season also set the record for short-lived tropical storms; Therefore, it remained on pace for an average hurricane season in terms of hurricanes and major hurricanes.

Here are eight major storylines we'll remember from this hurricane season.

1. Hurricane Dorian's Devastation in the Bahamas

The list begins with the storm that will be remembered as the beast of 2019 – Hurricane Dorian.

Dorian inched westward across the northwestern Bahamas islands of the Abacos and Grand Bahama, blowing away everything in its path. At its peak, sustained winds in Dorian's eyewall climbed to 185 mph as it barreled over Great Abaco Island. Some residents likely experienced wind gusts over 200 mph. Seas may have grown 25 feet higher than usual during the worst of the storm.

Furthermore, Dorian's extreme winds and seas were exacerbated by the storm's extremely slow westward pace across the northern Bahamas, then its stall between Grand Bahama and Florida. Some felt Dorian's total wrath for entire days.

While it might take years to know the final damage across the Bahamas, early estimates suggest that Dorian left about $2.5 billion in damage to infrastructure alone. Add in losses of services and cleanup costs, and that total soars to $3.4 billion.

The report, released by the Inter-American Development Bank in early November, echoed the previously reported death toll of 67 and number of missing, 282, as of late October.

(FULL RECAP: Hurricane Dorian)

2. Dorian Causes Mini-Tsunami in North Carolina, Then Rips Through Nova Scotia

Even if Dorian hadn’t impacted the Bahamas, Dorian would have been a memorable hurricane for residents of eastern North Carolina and Nova Scotia.

After a belly-churning right-hand turn just off the east coast of Florida, Dorian scrubbed along the coast of the Carolinas. The hurricane eventually pushed over the Outer Banks into Pamlico Sound, which Dorian turned into a giant wave pool as fierce winds rapidly changed direction.

Dorian pushed walls of water onto the North Carolina coast when the Category 1 storm made landfall on Sept. 6 at Hatteras. Then, as the winds shifted, the surge was pulled back out of the bays and rivers, inundating everything in its path.

A group of typically hurricane-hearty horses was surprised by the extreme sloshing on Cedar Island. More than half of a herd of nearly 50 horses died in what was described as a mini-tsunami. Three cows were able to survive the surge near Cedar Island, but as many as 20 others were swept out to sea.

The ocean wasn't the only headline in the Carolinas.

Tornadoes, wind damage, flooding and beach erosion were reported across the Carolinas as Dorian made its trek northward.

Power outages soared in North Carolina during the storm. More than 400,000 homes and businesses lost electricity in the Carolinas and Virginia, according to PowerOutage.us.

Damage from Dorian in the United States was estimated to be between $1 billion and $1.2 billion, making Dorian the first of two tropical billion-dollar disasters in 2019.

And Dorian wasn’t done yet.

After hitting Cape Hatteras, Dorian accelerated northeastward toward the Canadian city of Halifax, Nova Scotia.

Winds, surge and waves increased rapidly as Dorian approached the Canadian maritimes a day and a half after whipping North Carolina. Winds as high as 90 mph, potentially higher at skyscraper height, caused a crane to collapse as the eyewall punched through Halifax. Nearly 500,000 customers lost power in southeastern Canada. Strong winds peeled off roofs while sheds and docks were smashed to bits.

In all, Dorian took a two-week journey from when it first formed as a tropical depression east of the Windward Islands to Canada.

3. Imelda: Harvey Déjà Vu; Another 'I' Name to Be Retired?

Tropical Storm Imelda became the year’s second tropics-related billion-dollar disaster as it dropped 2 to 4 feet of rain on southeastern Texas and southwestern Louisiana in mid-September, two years after Harvey brought catastrophic rainfall to the same region.

Imelda became the fifth-wettest tropical cyclone to impact the Lower 48.

The highest rainfall total from Imelda was 43.39 inches southwest of Beaumont in Jefferson County, Texas, at North Fork Taylor Bayou.

(FULL RECAP: Tropical Storm Imelda)

While Harvey and Imelda have some similarities, like the evacuation of news studios and the closure of Interstate 10 east of Houston, the two storms were largely on different scales.

Harvey’s rainfall footprint, in terms of area that was drenched, was 13 times larger than Imelda’s, and Harvey stuck around Southeast Texas twice as long.

Imelda is the most recent standout for non-hurricane disasters, ironically occurring in the same region as Tropical Storm Allison in 2001, which also brought extreme rainfall to Houston.

The naming of Imelda leading up to this disaster also borrowed its own headlines.

Within an hour early Sept. 17, a tropical depression formed, became a tropical storm and then made landfall on the Texas coast near Freeport.

These are merely man-made definitions of strength and location of a storm, but it is notable that a storm can spin up so quickly.

The name "Imelda" might be retired from future name lists when officials meet in early 2020. Storm names are retired when tropical storms or hurricanes bearing that name cause catastrophic damage or loss of life, such that future use may be considered insensitive or confusing. Imelda replaced Ingrid in 2014, which replaced Iris in 2002, following their mass destruction in the previous year.

"I" names are the most retired storm name dating back to the 1954 hurricane season. Since then, 11 "I" names have been retired, including recent notables Irma and Irene. The "I" name typically occurs close to or just after the peak of hurricane season, when conditions are ripest for tropical cyclone formation and intensification.

4. Lorenzo’s Extreme Transformation

Lorenzo rapidly intensified on Sept. 28 from Category 3 status with estimated maximum sustained winds of 115 mph at 11 a.m. EDT to the season’s second Category 5 hurricane with winds of 160 mph just 12 hours later.

The quick change took computer models and human forecasters by surprise. Lorenzo was a relatively large hurricane, with tropical-storm-force winds extending more than 250 miles from the eye before rapid intensification, which usually makes this kind of development less likely.

(FULL RECAP: Hurricane Lorenzo)

Lorenzo took advantage of far-above-average sea-surface temperatures, relatively low vertical wind shear and the end of an eyewall replacement cycle to intensify.

The metamorphosis occurred in the subtropical eastern Atlantic, a part of the basin in which a Category 5 hurricane hadn't previously been documented, in records dating to the 1920s.

National Hurricane Center forecaster Eric Blake noted Lorenzo became a Category 5 hurricane almost 650 miles farther east than the previous easternmost Category 5 hurricane, Hugo, in 1989.

This was one of several notables this hurricane season in terms of location. More on those later.

5. Barry: Barely a Hurricane

Barry washed ashore in southern Louisiana with just enough strength to be called the season’s first hurricane in mid-July after meandering around the southern U.S. as a non-tropical disturbance.

Barry brought heavy rain and up to 6.5 feet of storm surge to southeastern Louisiana, southern Mississippi and southern Alabama. Barry dropped more than 20 inches of rain in southwestern Louisiana as it moved inland from the Gulf of Mexico.

Barry’s remnants produced 16.59 inches of rain in Dierks, Arkansas – the most rain associated with a tropical system in state history.

6. Humberto’s Bermuda Lashing

Humberto provided another scare to the Dorian-destroyed Bahamas in mid-September, but went on to smack Bermuda with hurricane-force winds and 30-foot waves, a surprising potency for many.

While Humberto never made landfall, weather stations in Bermuda recorded wind gusts as high as 120 mph as the storm made its closest pass 75 miles to the north as a major hurricane.

This was enough for major impacts.

The strong winds knocked out power to 80% of Bermuda and felled trees, prompting government offices and schools to close. The island was locked down for a short time due to damage and debris removal following the storm. No one was killed.

7. Late-Season Storms Farther East Than Ever Before

As previously mentioned, Hurricane Lorenzo became the easternmost Category 5 hurricane on record by a landslide, but that wasn’t the only longitudinally-challenged record that Lorenzo set.

Lorenzo also spent the most energy and the most time as a Category 3 or higher hurricane east of 45 degrees west longitude of any Atlantic tropical cyclone on record. Lorenzo then retained its name as a winterlike "Storm Lorenzo" walloped Ireland in early October.

But other late-season storms continued this edge-of-the-tropics trend.

Tropical Depression 15 formed just off the coast of Africa in mid-October, long after the African tropical wave train typically shuts down. This set a record for the easternmost formation for a late-season tropical cyclone.

Perhaps the most surprising storm on the list of 2019 eastern records was Hurricane Pablo, which intensified midway between the Azores and Ireland. It became a hurricane at nearly 43 degrees north latitude, or about the same latitude as Boston.

Despite the colder waters of such a northern and eastern location, Pablo was able to feed on favorable atmospheric temperatures aloft.

Finally, Rebekah became a named storm north of 38 degrees north latitude and just west of the Azores on the day before Halloween, setting a record for northernmost named storm development that late in the year.

Satellite data in the far reaches of the Atlantic is better than ever with the relatively new GOES-16 and Meteosat satellites. These satellites are capable of detecting the finer details that make a tropical storm well-defined, whereas some storms may not have even been detected decades ago.

Nevertheless, new records will likely be set and then broken as the conventional boundaries of the Atlantic Basin expand with both better technology and expanding tropical warm waters.

8. Lorenzo: NOAA Hurricane Hunters Help Rescue 3 from Sunken Tugboat

Hurricane Lorenzo's raging seas and extreme winds drove the Luxembourg-flagged Bourbon Rhode tugboat to the bottom of the Atlantic on Sept. 26 more than 1,200 miles northeast of the Lesser Antilles. Four bodies were recovered and seven more crewmembers are presumed dead.

The ship, which was crewed by 14 Ukrainian, Russian, South African, Filipino and Croatian seafarers, likely made it near or into the eyewall of Hurricane Lorenzo, meaning the crew may have experienced sustained winds up to 130 mph and waves in excess of 20 feet.

On Sept. 28, three people on a lifeboat were saved during rescue efforts that included the French Navy, the U.S. NOAA Hurricane Hunters, the U.S. Coast Guard and nearly a dozen commercial vessels. The French Navy Falcon 50, along with the Hurricane Hunters, which were en route to investigate and gather data on Hurricane Lorenzo, are credited with finding the lifeboat with three people aboard.

Both crews of the American-based Hurricane Hunters typically only fly out to the middle of the tropical Atlantic, but NOAA was tasked on this rare occasion for the research mission in one of the strongest cyclones headed for the Azores. If not for the mission, the plane would not have been in position to spot the missing crewmembers.

Search and rescue operations continued for at least 16 days, and the area continues to be monitored. No signs of life or additional lifeboats have been found.

The Bourbon Rhode was a tugboat designed for terminal assistance, oil prevention and anchor handling functions, according to the company that owns it. It was en route from Las Palmas in the Canary Islands to Georgetown, Guyana.

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