How to be ready for a hurricane in times of pandemic 5:09
(CNN) -
This hurricane season continues to set records.
Arriving in Texas last night, Beta is the ninth named storm to make landfall in 2020. This hurricane season now shares the record, with the 1916, for the most named systems to make landfall in the United States in a single year.
More named cyclones have made landfall in the United States this year than in the historic 2005 season, which had seven cases.
Even more remarkable: we tied the record in September.
There are still more than two months of hurricane season.
"On average, there is a near 50/50 chance that we will or will not see a named system make landfall in the United States between now and November 30," said CNN meteorologist Brandon Miller.
"But this is not an average year," he added.
In the past three years, the United States has seen at least one tropical cyclone make landfall in October and November.
If recent history is any guide, every year since 2016 has had at least one storm make landfall in the country during that period.
Therefore, 2020 may go down in the record books for having the most cyclones to make landfall in the United States in a single year.
Almost the entire east coast of the United States from Brownsville, Texas, to Portland, Maine, has experienced tropical storm force winds this hurricane season.
And only small portions of the coastline of Florida, Georgia and Maine have escaped winds of that intensity this year.
The good news is that as of Tuesday morning, there is little chance of a tropical formation for the next 5 days.
Other staggering records from the 2020 hurricane season
You may have noticed that this latest storm is called Beta.
That is not a mistake.
For the second time in history, the National Hurricane Center (NHC) has exhausted the full list of available names.
To name additional storms, the NHC uses the Greek alphabet.
In 2005, they had to use six letters of the Greek alphabet for a record number of storms.
If the NHC names five more storms, 2020 will go down in history as the season with the most named storms in the Atlantic.
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This year is already well ahead of the 2005 season. In 2005, Tropical Storm Alpha was named on October 22.
In 2020, Alpha was named on September 18, nearly five weeks before the 2005 storm of the same name.
Similarly, all but three named storms so far this season (Arthur, Bertha and Dolly) set a record as the first to form.
Like Alpha, Beta was formed a month earlier than the previous record set in 2005.
Ten of these storms formed in September, breaking the old record of eight set in 2002, 2007 and 2010, tweeted Phil Klotzbach, a research scientist at Colorado State University.
On average, there are three named storms in September and 12 throughout the season.
Just to remind you, Beta is the 23rd storm of the season.
Beta was one of three storms that formed on the same day.
Only on one other occasion have three named storms formed on the same day, August 15, 1893.
Hurricane season
