2023 Atlantic Hurricane Season (zal0phus)

The 2023 Atlantic Hurricane Season was the most active, costly, and deadly Atlantic hurricane season in recorded history, shattering numerous records. Producing 29 tropical cyclones, 21 hurricanes, 12 major hurricanes, and 6 Category 5 hurricanes, the season's destructive impact was felt all across the Atlantic basin, inflicting a staggering $950 billion USD in damages and taking some 32,000 human lives.

Of these storms, the most damage was caused by Don, Emily, Gert, Idalia, Lee, Margot, Sean, Vince, and Gamma- among these, Margot was the strongest, beating Hurricane Patricia's record of the strongest hurricane in the Western Hemisphere; and Hurricane Sean was the deadliest and costliest, rendering much of Pinellas County, Florida uninhabitable for decades to come. Hurricane Don stalled out over Hispaniola as a Category 2, drenching the island with deadly floods; Hurricane Emily took a long, destructive Category 4 journey throughout the Caribbean and Gulf of Mexico; Hurricane Gert, an enormous Category 5, slammed into the Florida Panhandle as a Category 4; Hurricane Idalia, a Category 5, first devastated Guadeloupe, then followed up with South Florida and coastal Louisiana; Hurricane Lee slowly slid up the East Coast as a Category 3 and left flooding in its wake; Hurricane Vince took a peculiar, westward-curving path and devastated Haiti as a Category 5 and coastal Georgia as a Category 4; and Hurricane Gamma took a strange, loopy path through the lower Caribbean and Gulf before impacting Galveston as a very small Category 3 hurricane.

Timeline 

Forecasts 

Most annual hurricane prediction outlets initially suggested an average season occurring in the wake of a weak El Nino, which had set in during early 2023 after the rather active 2022 hurricane season. The first forecast was released by TSR in December of 2022, calling for a rather inactive season with 11 storms, 6 hurricanes, and 1 to 3 major hurricanes. In April of 2023, CSU, NOAA, and UKMET issued their forecasts, calling for seasonal totals of 14/8/3, 15/5/2, and 15/7/3 respectively. the present El Nino abruptly shifted into cool-neutral ENSO conditions akin to those of the 2005 season in late April. A midseason forecast issued by CSU in early September came the closest to predicting the actual amount of cyclones; calling for 21 storms, 15 hurricanes, and 7 major hurricanes. Even so, activity was still significantly greater than any outlet had projected.

