2024 Atlantic Hurricane Season

  • Released Tuesday, February 11, 2025
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Data visualization of the 2024 hurricane season where time is sped up during non-hurricane activity.

The 2024 Atlantic hurricane season was notably active, featuring 18 named storms, 11 hurricanes, and 5 major hurricanes. This level of activity aligns with pre-season forecasts that anticipated an above-normal season, largely due to exceptionally warm sea surface temperatures (SSTs) in the tropical Atlantic and Caribbean Sea.

Sea Surface Temperature colorbar, where colors go from dark blue (20 degrees Celsius) to green (25 degrees Celsius) to deep red (30 degrees Celsius).

Sea Surface Temperature (SST) colorbar focusing primarily on temperatures between 20 degrees Celsius to 30 Celsius. Hurricanes tend to form over the warm tropical oceans where the SST is warmer than ~26.5 C (~80 F) depicted in colors from yellow to red.

Sea surface temperatures play a critical role in hurricane development, as warmer waters provide the energy necessary for storm formation and intensification. In 2024, SSTs in the tropical Atlantic were at near-record warm levels during the peak of the hurricane season. These anomalously high temperatures contributed to the formation of several intense storms, including Hurricane Beryl, which became the earliest forming Cat 5 on record, causing significant damage in Grenada and Jamaica, as well as hitting the U.S. Gulf Coast.

The season was also marked by rapid intensification events, exemplified by Hurricane Milton, which escalated from a Category 1 to a Category 5 storm at near-record speed before impacting Florida’s Gulf Coast. Such rapid intensification is often linked to elevated SSTs, which provide the additional heat energy required for storms to strengthen quickly.

Discretized Liquid Precipitation colorbar, where the following colors fit within the following ranges: 
Dark green = 0.1 to 0.2 millimeters per hour
Green = 0.2 to 0.3 millimeters per hour
Light green = 0.3 to 0.5 millimeters per hour
Yellow = 0.5 to 1.0 millimeters per hour
Light orange = 1.0 to 2.0 millimeters per hour
Orange = 2.0 to 3.0 millimeters per hour
Orange-Red = 3.0 to 5.0 millimeters per hour
Red = 5.0 to 10 millimeters per hour
Dark red = 10 to 20 millimeters per hour
Deep red = 20 to 50 millimeters per hour

Liquid precipitation rate in milimeters per hour

Discretized Frozen Precipitation colorbar that ranges from 0.1 to 50 millimeters per hour and where the corresponding colors range from cyan (0.1 mm/hour) to purple (50+ mm/hour)

Frozen precipitation rate in milimeters per hour

The estimated financial losses due to the 2024 hurricane season were around $200 billion, making it one of the costliest hurricane seasons on record. Notably, Hurricane Helene was the deadliest U.S. storm since Katrina in 2005, reaching as far inland as North Carolina, causing catestrophic flooding to the western portions of North Carolina.

Full length data visualization of the 2024 Hurricane Season showing SSTs, IMERG precipitation, CPC clouds, and storm tracks together.

In summary, the 2024 Atlantic hurricane season was characterized by above-average activity and significant impacts, heavily influenced by unusually warm sea surface temperatures that fueled storm development and intensification.



Credits

NASA's Scientific Visualization Studio

Release date

This page was originally published on Tuesday, February 11, 2025.
This page was last updated on Monday, February 17, 2025 at 10:42 AM EST.


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