HYPERACTIVE! 26 LANDFALLING NAMED STORMS IN THE SOUTH SINCE 2018… Unreal. If you have felt overwhelmed by hurricane seasons as of late (I know I have!), there is data to show why. Since 2018, we have had a whopping 26 named tropical storms and hurricanes making landfall in the American South. A few data highlights…

– The last few hurricane seasons have been unprecedented in terms of the number of storms making landfall in the United States. 4 landfalls happened in 2018, 3-5 happened in 2019 (depending on if you count two late-season post-tropical named storms), 10 happened in 2020, and so far, 7 have happened in 2021.

– 3 major hurricane landfalls have happened since 2018, including category 5 Hurricane Michael in 2018 slamming into the Florida Panhandle, high-end category 4 Hurricane Laura making landfall in western Louisiana, and high-end category 4 (at the time of this writing anyway) Hurricane Ida that made landfall in southeast Louisiana just a few weeks ago.

– Multiple hurricanes, including Sally and Zeta in 2020, were on the cusp of being major hurricanes at landfall. Sally and Zeta have arguably been the most impactful storms for our local area in south Alabama and northwest Florida in the last 4 years.

– Louisiana has really taken a beating from tropical systems over the last few years. I’m counting 8 landfalls (with a near miss of a landfall from Hurricane Marco in 2020 that is not included in this total). Two of the strongest hurricane strikes (Laura and Ida) happened in Louisiana.

– The Florida Panhandle has also been somewhat of a hotspot for landfalling storms since 2018, including visits from Tropical Storm Alberto (2018), Major Hurricane Michael (2018), Post-Tropical Cyclone Nestor (2019), Tropical Storm Fred (2021), and Tropical Storm Mindy (2021).

– Tropical Storm Eta made landfall twice in Florida in 2020. Eta briefly became a hurricane west of Tampa in the Gulf of Mexico, but both of the landfall strikes were when the storm was at tropical storm status.

– Note this list does NOT include U.S. landfalls of tropical storms and hurricanes that have hit states in the Northeastern U.S. If you add those storms into the mix, the number of U.S. landfalls is higher!

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