Atlantic Hurricane Season 2020
The 2020 Atlantic hurricane season is one for the record books. There were two storms in May, before the season's official start on June 1, and this is the first year since storm record-keeping began in 1851 in which nine named tropical cyclones have formed before August and thirteen before September. Exceptionally warm ocean water, due in part to climate change, is driving the record activity. The most destructive storm in the US so far this season has been Hurricane Laura, which is the strongest landfalling hurricane in Louisiana history and the fifth-strongest hurricane on record to make landfall in the continental US. There are strong ties between climate change and more destructive Atlantic hurricanes.
An active hurricane season is especially dangerous this year because of the compounded public health risks that evacuations or displacements cause as COVID-19 continues to spread and are exacerbated by unemployment and the economic recession. These risks are disproportionately concentrated in low-income communities and communities of color.