Hurricane Season 2022 ends today;  337 died + Damages at $54 Billion

By Dana Malcolm

Staff Writer

November 30, 2022 – What was predicted to be an extremely active hurricane season ends today Wednesday November 30, thankfully, falling a little short of 2022 predictions.  Less storms, less major storms still 337 were killed and damages hit over $54 billion.

The season started slowly when compared to recent years. In fact, 2022 was the first hurricane season in eight years where a storm did not develop before June 1^st.   Nonetheless by June 5 the first storm was in and it was named: Alex which was one of the few storms to survive crossing land moving into the Atlantic from the Eastern Pacific basin.

Alex was the first of fourteen storms.  Bonnie and Colin arrived in July without much damage and the season was quiet for another month.

Then came September, which spat out Hurricanes Danielle; Earl; Fiona; Tropical Storm Gaston; Hurricane Ian; and Tropical Storm Hermine in quick succession.

Hurricane Fiona which reached Category 4 strength became the first major storm of the season on October September 20th passing by the Puerto Rico, the Dominican Republic and the Turks and Caicos with severe flooding in the two Latino Caribbean countries and violent winds in TCI, a small British overseas territory which it hit as a Category 1 storm.

Bermuda would also feel the wrath of Hurricane Fiona which continued north, into Canada where at Cat4 strength it become that country’s strongest, devastating infrastructure in places like Prince Edward Island.  The death toll in Fiona: 31 people.

Only seven days later Hurricane Ian, which at its strongest was a Category 4, barreled towards Florida and the Carolinas going past Jamaica and directly over Cuba in the process, with destructive results.

Almost 150 people were killed according to US media.

Large swaths of Florida were torn apart and thousands left homeless.  A 12 foot storm surge meant many people in single story homes had to leave them behind lest they drown in the water filling them.

In October Category 1 Hurricane Julia and Tropical Storm Karl formed.  Skirting the Central American countries, Julia still drenched Venezuela, Guatemala and El Salvador – reports of severe flash floods led to at least 91 people died.

Hurricanes Lisa, Martin, and Nicole formed in November.

Nicole was a surprising late season Category 1 hurricane which brought extreme flooding to the Dominican Republic and Northwestern Bahamas affecting areas still recovering from hurricane Dorian.  It went on to further damage areas of Florida which had only weeks before been slightly affected by Hurricane Ian.   Nicole brought a direct and damaging hit.  At least 11 people were killed.

According to official assessments, the University of Arizona turned out to be the most accurate predictor of the season claiming back in April that there would be fourteen named storms, seven  hurricanes and three major hurricanes.