1980 North Sea hurricane season

The 1980 North Sea hurricane season was the most active season for its time, surpassed by the 1981 season the next year. The season featured 14 named storms, much more compared than the 1979 season, the previous year. The season's strongest storm was Hurricane Gordon, a Category 5 hurricane that struck France and Holland. Overall, Hurricane Gordon became the very first $1 billion+ storm in the basin, as Hurricane Gordon caused $1.6 billion in damages, which held the costliest spot for two years. Two other devastating storms occurred in the season, Chester and Fionna. Hurricane Chester became a Category 2 hurricane that struck the Eastern coast of England, causing more than $600 million in damages and 41 fatalities. Hurricane Fionna, a very intense Category 4 hurricane, struck Norway as a Category 3 hurricane, causing 14 fatalities, and $250 million in damages. Otherwise, most storms either remained weak or insignificant.

Storm names
This was the debut of this list. All names on the list were used for the first time ever in this basin. Names that were not retired in the winter of 1981 were used again in 1986.

Retirement
In the winter of 1981, the names Chester, Fionna, and Gordon were retired. They were replaced by Charley, Fanny, and Gerald for 1986.