For the second straight year, Americans living in coastal towns or possessing beachfront property along the Atlantic Ocean and Gulf of Mexico will be breathing a sigh of relief following an extremely quiet hurricane season.
With the Atlantic hurricane season set to conclude on Sunday, it appears the 2014 season will go down as one of the more uneventful the Atlantic basin has ever seen.
The Atlantic hurricane season, which runs from June 1 to Nov. 30, produced just eight tropical storms, six hurricanes and only two major hurricanes in 2014. Winds must reach 74 mph for a storm to be considered a hurricane, with major hurricanes requiring a wind speed of 111 mph or higher.
For perspective, roughly a dozen tropical storms develop during an average Atlantic hurricane season.
"Fortunately, much of the U.S. coastline was spared this year with only one landfalling hurricane along the East Coast. Nevertheless, we know that's not always going to be the case," said National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration National Weather Service director Louis Uccellini.
Earlier this week, the NOAA provided a visual breakdown of the 2014 season:
Despite 2014's low numbers, 2013 was an even quieter year for hurricanes in the Atlantic, with only two storms reaching hurricane status and none becoming major hurricanes.
The 2013 season was the quietest since 1982.
But while the past six months have been calm in the Atlantic, activity in the eastern Pacific Ocean has been anything but, with 14 hurricanes and eight major hurricanes emerging from 20 named storms.
Although the Atlantic has been fortunate to avoid catastrophe of late, it remains to be seen whether quiet seasons will become a trend. Mother Nature remains unpredictable and the 2015 season is only six months away.
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