People in the Caribbean and other hurricane-prone areas can breathe a sigh of relief since the 2023 Hurricane Season ended on Thursday, November 30. Scientists at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) said it was one of the busiest seasons on record with 20 named storms, seven hurricanes, three of which became major hurricanes.
The organization revealed that 2023 ranked fourth for the most-named storms in a year since 1950. Only the very active hurricane seasons of 2020, 2005, and 2021 had more. The 2023 season was described as “above average,” since according to the NOAA an “average season” has 14 named storms, seven hurricanes, and three major hurricanes.
Dominica did not suffer a direct hit from any of the named storms this year but got close calls from Bret and Phillipe. On Thursday, June 22, Bret forced the closure of school and suspension of the work day at noon but passed south of the island. Likewise, on October 3, schools across the country were closed because of Phillipe but the storm veered north of Dominica, making landfall on Barbuda before moving on to U.S. and British Virgin Islands.
This year’s above-average season took place despite the presence of the El Niño weather phenomenon, which is the above-average sea-surface temperatures that periodically develop across the east-central equatorial Pacific.
When El Niño is strong, it normally suppresses Atlantic storms and the number of named storms is typically lower but in 2023 meteorologists said unprecedented warm temperatures in the Atlantic, linked to climate change, fueled storm formation.
“The Atlantic basin produced the most named storms of any El Niño-influenced year in the modern record,” Matthew Rosencrans, lead hurricane forecaster at NOAA’s Climate Prediction Center said, referring to the 2023 hurricane season.
“The record-warm ocean temperatures in the Atlantic provided a strong counterbalance to the traditional El Nino impacts.”
El Niño is expected to end next year and with global temperatures on the rise, some forecasters are saying there’s “high potential” for an even more active hurricane season in 2024. Despite the above-average 2023 hurricane season, there was a remarkably low death toll.
Unofficially, three storms caused a total loss of life of 12. In the Dominican Republic, there were two deaths that were directly linked to Hurricane Franklin, there were three deaths directly linked to Hurricane Lee in the United States, and Hurricane Idalia caused seven direct and three indirect deaths in the United States.
Whilst not to downplay the danger of tropical storms and hurricanes, the wording “on record” and, on one occasion recently, “since records began”, needs to be taken into consideration.
It is only relatively recently that meteorologist have had the means of detecting weather patterns that develop over oceans. In earlier times, many short-lived storms and hurricanes went unrecorded.
@Lying Clown
Relax Clown for many are dying from heart attacks ad strokes. I don’t wish that you rupture a blood vessel and go to the great beyond prematurely. Don’t allow your unbridled passion for one ultra-selfish heathen to precipitate your demise. Your abiding affection for this satanic crook is beyond the pale.
Do you Lin Clown have any relatives still alive? Evidently, you have no love for the pm as you have given Roosevelt all.
@Ibo, l personally welcome your comments about the hurricane season it can come at anytime, especially in this world we are leaving in today, you are right and the beauty about this comment there was no politics nonsense in it well done!!!!!
but we missing a vital point…..this team in office…are they not disaster? can Dominica ever recover…only interested in themselves….what work are they performing for such huge increase in salary? kindly look back and give them a rating….my rating is 10%…..for allowing those crooks to have our passport….
God is Merciful but man is Ungrateful and won’t give thanks to God. Dominica’s roadways are serpentine from east to west and from north to south. These roads are mainly underneath tall cliffs or above precipices. It’s only the daily grace of God that allows us to go and come safely. I don’t take that for granted.
you lie Ibo,your hypocrite,you the UWP and their acolytes wish a hurricane had devastated Dominica like it did in 2017.Only a lunatic who has never read your comments will believe you want anything good for Dominica while DLP is in power.Lying crooked traitor.
Let us not forget this. A hurricane can happen at any of the year but is most likely to happen between June 1 and November 30.
Let us collectively give thanks that there was no loss of lives nor any devastating destruction of properties and crops. God is good all the time and all the time God is good.
When has there even been a hurricane outside of that period?
Between the years 1851 to the present, hurricanes have formed outside of the period June to November. However, they have all occurred far north of Dominica.