Hurricane Delta Likely to Become Record-Breaking 10th Mainland U.S. Landfall of 2020 Hurricane Season

Delta is expected to hit the northern Gulf Coast Friday into early Saturday. When it does, the mainland U.S. will have seen 10 landfalls from tropical storms and hurricanes this year since the barrage began in late May.

That would break the 1916 record of nine mainland U.S. landfalls in a season, according to Phil Klotzbach, a tropical scientist at Colorado State University.

Four of the landfalls so far in 2020 have been from hurricanes, including Hanna, Isaias, Laura and Sally. Delta is currently forecast to be the fifth hurricane landfall of this year.

Five U.S. hurricane landfalls would be more than double the average of one to two hurricane landfalls per year, according to NOAA's Hurricane Research Division.

Of the 10 landfalls, Delta is likely to be the seventh to occur along the Gulf Coast from Alabama to South Texas. Three of those – Cristobal, Marco and Laura – were in Louisiana, and Delta has a chance to join them as the state's fourth.

While it didn't officially make landfall, the season's first storm, Tropical Storm Arthur, also prompted tropical storm warnings in eastern North Carolina as it brushed by in mid-May.

Only Florida's Upper Keys and the west coast of Florida, east of Apalachicola, has yet to be placed under a tropical storm or hurricane warning so far this season.

When considering warnings issued inland, even parts of western Maine have been in a tropical storm warning this season before the west coast of Florida.

After Oct. 4, an average hurricane season delivers another two named storms. So it's possible we're not done after Delta, as far as U.S. impact is concerned.

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