2024: the year of extreme hurricanes

This year brought a literal whirlwind of destruction in the form of hurricanes. The 2024 Atlantic hurricane ended on Nov. 30, marking one of the deadliest and costliest seasons in recent history. And storms are likely to get worse in the coming years, leading to potentially fatal consequences.

Arrival of the deadliest hurricane since 2005

Hurricanes were a highlight of 2024, and this year the country has seen some of the biggest storms in decades. This is largely due to warming temperatures caused by climate change. In 2024, "the average person worldwide experienced 34 days of 'risky heat' between June and August," said ClimateWire. "Those are conditions hotter than 90% of the temperatures ever recorded locally between 1991 and 2020." Warmer oceans act as fuel for hurricanes, often making them stronger.

While climate change "has not led to an increase in the total number of hurricanes hitting the U.S. each year," said NPR, "the storms that do form are more likely to become more intense, with higher wind speeds, heavier rainfall and more severe storm surge." Several major storms made headlines this year, including Hurricanes Beryl, Helene and Milton. Helene, which pummeled Florida and North Carolina, was "the deadliest Atlantic hurricane since Maria in 2017 and the deadliest hurricane to affect the continental United States since Hurricane Katrina in 2005, with more than 150 direct fatalities," said the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA).

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A record-breaking round of storms

The Atlantic hurricane season set many records this year. "Between June 1 and the end of November, 18 named storms formed across the basin, with 11 becoming hurricanes and five strengthening into major cyclones. Eight hurricanes made landfall; five of which struck the U.S.," said FOX Weather. This classified 2024 as a "very active" season because the average is "14 named storms, 7 hurricanes and 3 major storms" forming during a typical season.

In addition to being above average in number of hurricanes, "initial damage estimates put losses at around $200 billion, making 2024 the second-costliest season on record," said FOX Weather. Including hurricanes, "there have been 24 confirmed weather/climate disaster events with losses exceeding $1 billion each to affect United States," said NOAA.

The new normal?

Intense hurricanes are going to have massive economic consequences. "Home insurance costs have more than doubled in the U.S. over the past two decades, and many insurance companies are exiting states like Florida and California that are especially vulnerable to climate-worsened extreme weather like hurricanes and wildfires," said Yale Climate Connections. The problem is only going to worsen as "hurricanes as intense as Hurricane Helene are today about 2.5 times more likely in the region," and "would be expected to occur on average every 130 years in a preindustrial climate but now have a one-in-53 chance in any given year."

Deadly hurricanes will become more of a staple without efforts to curb emissions. "Five out of every six hurricanes had this really strong statistically robust signal where human-caused climate change was really clearly increasing the intensity of these storms," said climatologist Daniel Gilford, who released a study analyzing the last several hurricane seasons, to NPR. As the U.S. ushers in a second Trump presidency, climate action may be lost in the wind.