2024 Atlantic hurricane season ends this weekend

Saturday marks the final day of the 2024 Atlantic hurricane season.

The season runs from June 1 through Nov. 30.

This year saw 18 named storms, 11 of which were hurricanes, meaning the winds reached 74 mph or greater. Five reached major hurricane status at Category 3 or higher intensity (winds of at least 111 mph).

On average, there are seven hurricanes per season.

Under the right conditions, tropical systems can take shape outside of the traditional hurricane season.

Meteorologists called it a “crazy busy” hurricane season, due in part to unusually warm ocean temperatures. Eight hurricanes made landfall, in the U.S., Bermuda, Cuba, the Dominican Republic and Grenada.

In September, Hurricane Helene caused catastrophic damage across North Carolina and was the deadliest storm to hit the U.S. mainland since Katrina in 2005. More than 200 people died, including more than 100 in North Carolina.

North Carolina Gov. Roy Cooper estimated Helene cost $53 billion in direct or indirect damages with houses, drinking water systems and farms and forests destroyed. Florida, Georgia, South Carolina, Tennessee and Virginia also sustained extensive damage.

In October, Hurricane Milton rapidly intensified and the storm’s maximum wind speeds hit a screaming 180 mph, making it one of the strongest hurricanes by wind speed ever recorded in the Gulf of Mexico. The only one stronger by that measure was Hurricane Rita in 2005.

The areas where Helene and Milton struck saw as much as three times their usual rainfall for September and October, the heart of the Atlantic hurricane season. For Asheville, Tampa and Orlando, the two-month period was the wettest on record.

Several factors contribute to the formation of hurricanes, but unusually warm oceans allow hurricanes to form and intensify in places and times we don’t normally anticipate, University of Miami hurricane researcher Brian McNoldy said.

Hurricane Beryl became the first Category 4 hurricane on record to form in the month of June, slamming into the island of Carriacou in Grenada. In Jamaica, it went on to destroy crops and houses and left two dead. The last time the island was scraped by a Category 4 hurricane was Dean in 2007, making it “pretty rare,” McNoldy said. The storm then intensified into the earliest Category 5 hurricane ever in the Atlantic on July 1. Major hurricanes — Category 3 and above — are not usually seen until Sept. 1, according to the National Hurricane Center.

Planet-warming gases like carbon dioxide and methane released by transportation and industry are causing oceans to rapidly warm, according to McNoldy.

“In other words, we never had a storm as strong as Beryl so early in the season anywhere in the Atlantic and we never had a storm as strong as Milton so late in the season in the Gulf of Mexico,” he said.

“I don’t ever point to climate change as causing a specific weather event, but it certainly has its finger on the scale and makes these extreme storms more likely to occur,” said McNoldy.

In November, Hurricane Rafael reached 120 mph and was nearly the strongest November hurricane on record in the Gulf of Mexico, tying with Hurricane Kate in 1985. Rafael made landfall in Cuba and battered the island as it was trying to recover from widespread blackouts caused by Hurricane Oscar in October.

The Associated Press contributed to this story.