With hurricane season ending November 30, Hurricane Iota has been the 13th hurricane to form, making it the 30th named storm of the 2020 season. Hurricane Iota was about 35 miles east-southeast of Puerto Cabezas, Nicaragua, moving 9mph. It has been deemed a Category 5 hurricane. The record for highest number of tropical/subtropical storms in one year has been broken this year with 30 storms; the previous record of 28 storms was set in 2005. Iota is also the first Greek letter storm to ever become a Category 5 hurricane. 

This year’s season officially began June 1; however, on May 16 Arthur developed, a tropical storm that affected areas such as North Carolina, Cuba, the Bahamas, Bermuda, and Southern Florida. Since this start, the most impactful storm has been Hurricane Laura. The storm formed August 20 and landed along the U.S. Gulf Coast. Hurricane Laura was deemed a Category 4 storm. Louisiana and Texas faced winds up to 150 mph and many people lost power. In total 77 lives were taken by Hurricane Laura, and there was $14.1 billion in damage. It was only the tenth storm to make an appearance in 2020’s hurricane season and had died down to a Category 2 hurricane as it continued on its path. 

As the 2020 hurricane season comes to an end, it’s easy to say this year has been the most active Atlantic hurricane season on record. With a total of 30 named storms so far with 13 hurricanes and 6 major hurricanes, the season was also the fifth consecutive season in which at least one Category 5 hurricane formed. September of this year was the most active month with 10 of the 13 named storms. 2020 was also the only season with two major hurricanes in the month of November.