As the 2008 Atlantic Hurricane Season is drawing to a close, now is a time to look back on what happened during the season. This season, there was to date 17 tropical depressions, 16 named storms, 8 hurricanes, and 5 major hurricanes. The five major hurricanes: Bertha, Gustav, Ike, Omar, and Paloma occurred in five different months. As a matter of fact, there was a major storm in each of the last five months, which is a record. The previous record was set in 2005 with major hurricanes in four straight months: Dennis and Emily (July), Katrina (August), Rita (September), and Wilma (October).

A major hurricane is a storm that attains winds in excess of 111 miles per hour, or is a minimal Category Three Hurricane on the Saffir-Simpson Scale. The first of the major storms in 2008 occurred in July with Hurricane Bertha. Gustav followed in late August and early September. Hurricane Ike was the big story of the season as it crossed through Cuba, and made an impact directly over Galveston, Texas on September 13th as a very strong Category Two system. Omar directly impacted the Northeastern Leeward Islands in the Caribbean in October. It was the second storm on record to hit the Caribbean from the West. The first since Hurricane Lenny struck there in November 1999.

As you may already know, the 2005 Atlantic Hurricane Season was a record breaker in so many ways. There were 28 named storms, 15 hurricanes, 7 major hurricanes, and 4 Category Five Hurricanes. It was also a year when the complete list of storm names was exhausted, and storms had to be represented by letters in the Greek Alphabet. It was the first time such a thing had happened. There was also a storm that formed in the far eastern Atlantic in Hurricane Vince that ultimately went into Portugal and Spain as a depression. The first time on record that had happened. So, for the 2008 season to surpass a mark from that historic season was quite impressive.

Initial projections for the season called for 15 named storms, and then in August, those numbers were revised to have 17 named storms. So, the 16 that have actually occurred to this point (with still two weeks to go in the season), is pretty much on the mark. Another possible record is the number of storms and hurricanes that affected Cuba this season: Fay, Gustav, Ike, and Paloma. A couple modest tropical storms affected the Northeast and New England in the form of Hanna and Kyle. Both storms had been hurricanes at one point.