MIAMI — The 2012 Atlantic hurricane season that spawned Sandy and Isaac has drawn to an end as one for the record books.
There were 19 named storms in what meteorologists consider an above-average year that tied as being the third most-active season since 1851. The season runs from June 1 to Nov. 30, although tropical storms can and do sometimes develop outside those dates.
Even without a so-called major storm reaching the U.S., there was plenty of damage. A storm is classed as major once it becomes a Category 3 hurricane, with top sustained winds of 111 mph or higher.
Seven years have now gone by without a major hurricane making U.S. landfall, the longest stretch on record.
Dennis Feltgen, a spokesman for the National Hurricane Center, said a persistent jet-stream pattern has steered storms away from the U.S. in recent years.
It wasn’t enough to keep away Sandy, which morphed from hurricane to superstorm as it slammed into the New Jersey coast in October and battered the Northeast. It left millions without power and killed at least 125 people in the U.S. and 71 in the Caribbean.
The storm is estimated to have caused about $62 billion in damage and other losses in the U.S., most of it in New York and New Jersey. It is the second-costliest storm in U.S. history after 2005’s Hurricane Katrina.
Hurricane Isaac struck southern Louisiana in August on the eve of Hurricane Katrina’s seventh anniversary.
A typical hurricane season has 12 named storms, six of which become hurricanes and three major storms. This year, 10 storms became hurricanes and just one a Category 3 or higher, though it remained in the Atlantic Ocean.
Front Section, Pages 5 on 12/01/2012