2020 Atlantic Hurricane Season (Bob)

The 2020 Atlantic hurricane season was the most active Atlantic hurricane season on record. It featured a record 34 named storms, 22 hurricanes, and 14 major hurricanes. After an inactive previous season, this started exceptionally early with a category 2 hurricane, Arthur, forming in January and Subtropical Storm Bertha forming in February. The season had four pre-season storms - a record, as well as two post-season storms.

Hurricane Arthur
On December 31, a non-tropical area of low pressure developed northeast of the Bahamas. Stationary, the low slowly took on subtropical characteristics, and the NHC began monitoring it. On January 3, as an eye became present, the NHC noted that the system was likely becoming subtropical. It is estimated that it formed into a subtropical storm that day, but operationally, it was not classified into a subtropical cyclone until January 4. Due to record-warm water temperatures and minimal wind shear, Arthur rapidly intensified into a hurricane on January 5, and acquired winds of 105 mph briefly, before weakening to a category 1 hurricane on January 6. On January 7, Arthur was downgraded to a tropical storm, and became extratropical late that evening. Arthur is the strongest January Atlantic hurricane on record.