WSET.com - ABC13Active 2010 Hurricane Season by Matt Ferguson

This year's Hurricane Season is now officially over and many of you may be left wondering - where were the hurricanes? Believe it or not it was an extremely active season, but most of the hurricanes remained deep in the Atlantic. "For that reason, you could say the season was a gentle giant." says Jack Hayes, Ph.D., director of NOAA's National Weather Service.

 It turns out 2010 was the 2nd most active hurricane season on record. There were a total of 12 hurricanes which ties the 1969 season. Five hurricanes reached Category 3 or higher status, with winds over 111mph. In addition to the 12 hurricanes, 7 tropical depressions became tropical storms (those containing winds from 39 to 73mph).

The development of La Nina (cooling of the Pacific Ocean) helped promote such a lively year. Strong upper level winds across the Atlantic were weaker thanks to La Nina. This allowed hurricanes to develop without being sheared apart. Record warm sea surface temperatures in the Atlantic further encouraged storm development.

The adage "Out of sight, out of mind!" would describe this season well. The hurricanes NOAA forecasted did develop, but no major ones managed to hit the US. This is thanks to the storms staying well out to sea. Also, daily weather patterns across the Eastern US, which just happened to be in place at the right time, helped steer away hurricanes heading toward coastal sections. The closest and most threatening call was Hurricane Earl, which was at one time a Category 4 storm with winds as high as 145mph. This storm passed just to the east of the North Carolina Outer Banks on September 3rd.

Two storms in particular caused the most damage. Right off the top in late June Hurricane Alex hit Central America, and then moved into Mexico bringing deadly flooding. Then in late October Hurricane Tomas developed and eventually hit earthquake-ravaged Haiti adding insult to injury.

With the development of 19 named tropical storms, 12 of those hurricanes and 5 major, we were truly lucky to escape this season without a catastrophic disaster.