As noted in Flash Point: Hurricanes and Hyperbole, the National Hurricane Center lists the hurricane season in the Atlantic as beginning June 1st and ending November 30th
Last year we made our first annual summary of major storm activity for the previous year, looking at tornadoes, Atlantic hurricanes and Pacific hurricanes (typhoons): The Weather in 2014: Extreme Hysteria but Not Extreme Weather. We now take a look at 2015 to see what kind of a year it was. As we will show, all storm activity was sightly below average for the year.
For the 2015 season, 11 named storms formed in the Atlantic basin. Four of the storms became hurricanes, and 2 reached major hurricane status. There was also one unnamed tropical depression. While the number of named storms, hurricanes, and major hurricanes was only a little below the long-term average activity levels of 12, 6, and 3, respectively, many of the named storms were relatively weak and short-lived. As a result, in terms of Accumulated Cyclone Energy (ACE), which measures the combined strength and duration of tropical storms and hurricanes, activity in the Atlantic basin for the season was only about 63 percent of the 1981-2010 median. This makes 2015 a below-average season in terms of ACE.
So as with tornadoes, 2015 was slightly below the average for hurricanes while the major hurricanes were one third of the average of such storms.
Typhoons
As we have noted in the past, typhoon activity data is hard to find. The Weather Underground has an archive but lists data only to 2010. The best source we could find was the database maintained by the Kitamoto Laboratory at the National Institute of Informatics in Japan. From it we produced a summary table of all typhoon and cyclone activity from 1951 to present. Classification of storm by category or wind speed was going to be a laborious task. Instead, we counted the number of typhoons from 2000 to 2015 by year, the same period as for the tornado data. The average yearly number of typhoons was 36.5. The number in 2015 was just below the average at 34. In other words, like the Atlantic basin, cyclonic activity in the Western Pacific basins was slightly below average.
The Kitamoto Laboratory at the National Institute of Informatics in Japan provides data by year: Digital Typhoon: Seasonal List. However, the data is split over two Western Pacific basins and does not include the Eastern Pacific. In 2015, combined, there were 34 named storms in the Western Pacific basin. Also see Digital Typhoon: Activity Calendar (Number of Typhoons and Cyclones). The latter link gives a table of the number of days of cyclonic (typhoon) activity by month. Selecting a year gives a link at the bottom showing all the named storms for the year. Using this data we have compiled the total number of named storms beginning with 2006 although the data goes back to 1951.
Ian is a retired information technologist. While working at Health Canada he completed a BCS degree with highest honours at Carleton University in 1999. In 1998 he took a leave of absence from the federal government and worked as a consultant to Ontario Hydro Nuclear for 15 months in Y2K risk management. He retired from the government in 2000, went on to earn an MCS degree at Carleton, 2002, and subsequently completed the requirements for a PhD except for a dissertation.
Several years of graduate studies have equipped him to do thorough background research and analysis on topics he finds engaging. He is owner of the eclectic blog, The POOG. The acronym “POOG” came from a forgotten source: “pissed-off old guy”. A web search found a more flattering but accurate association: ”The mightiest of all men. He fights ignorant darkness in the name of wisdom, truth, courage, and honor.”
