8 Unusual Things We've Seen In The 2023 Hurricane Season

Each hurricane season we see a few things that catch our eye as unusual our odd. Here's a rundown of a few of those notables from the 2023 season so far.

1. The Atlantic hurricane season's first storm was in January: An unnamed subtropical storm formed just a few weeks into the year off the East Coast. This subtropical storm wasn't designated in real-time and therefore wasn't named. However, a statement released in May by the National Hurricane Center (NHC) found that it met the requirements for a subtropical storm based on a reanalysis.

2. Short-lived Arlene took a backward path In the Gulf: S​torms in the eastern Gulf of Mexico typically track in some sort of north, east or west direction, which means they often landfall along some part of the U.S. Gulf Coast. A​rlene did the opposite and took a north to south path over the eastern Gulf because of the upper-level steering currents that were in place. It then fizzled in the face of wind shear while approaching Cuba.

3. Bret, Cindy form in a strange place for June: It was the first time on record two tropical storms formed east of the Lesser Antilles (east of the Caribbean islands) during the month. Only a handful of all June storms have developed in this region of the Atlantic in records dating to the mid-19th century, so having two of them in one season is extremely rare. This area of the Atlantic sees a majority of its storms form in August or September.

4​. The season's first hurricane formed unusually far north: Don became a hurricane in the northern Atlantic on July 22 at 40.1 degrees north latitude, or close to the same latitude as New York City. It also made a strange looping path and was the fifth longest-lasting July storm on record.

6​. Hilary is California's first tropical storm in nearly 26 years: Hilary made landfall in Mexico's northern Baja Peninsula on Aug. 20 and then became the first tropical storm to cross into California since 1997. It brought notable flooding impacts to California and Nevada, including a year's worth of rain in a single day to Death Valley National Park.

7​. Idalia preliminarily ties as Florida Big Bend's strongest hurricane landfall: The hurricane intensified to a Category 4 storm in the Gulf of Mexico before coming ashore as a Category 3 on Aug. 30. Its preliminary 125 mph winds at landfall would equal an 1896 hurricane for the strongest to hit this region of Florida since the 1850s.

8​. Storms "swallow" other storms: September began with the non-tropical low-pressure system associated with former Hurricane Franklin absorbing the smaller Tropical Storm Jose. A few days later, it happened again with the remnants of Tropical Storm Gert getting pulled into former Hurricane Idalia's non-tropical low-pressure system in the north Atlantic.

Interactions like these between storms and/or their remnants can happen on occasion, but to see it twice in a span of a few days was unusual. It was all related to what was a crowded central Atlantic basin at the start of the month.

Chris Dolce has been a senior meteorologist with weather.com for over 10 years after beginning his career with The Weather Channel in the early 2000s.

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