page_title: Tropical cyclones in 2019
hierarchical_section_title: Tropical cyclones in 2019
caption_attribution_description: Tropical storms certainly aren’t in short supply this month, as you can see from this GOES East view from Sept. 19, 2019. Five named storms are active across the Atlantic and Eastern Pacific basins, including Hurricanes Humberto and Jerry, and Tropical Storms Lorena, Mario and Kiko. Tropical Depression Imelda has weakened further to a remnant low. On Wednesday, before Imelda became a depression, National Hurricane Center hurricane specialist Eric Blake tweeted, noting that six combined storms across the two basins ties with the modern record set in 1992. On average, early September marks the peak of hurricane season, especially in the Atlantic basin because the combination of warm sea surface temperatures, low vertical wind shear and, of course, a pre-existing disturbance create the perfect conditions for a hurricane. From 1975 to 2017, there has been an average of 3.1 Atlantic hurricanes per year in September. While Humberto is moving away from the East Coast after skirting around Bermuda, the remnants of Tropical Depression Imelda are inundating parts of the Texas Gulf Coast and southwest Louisiana with heavy rain that is causing life-threatening flash floods. Meanwhile, Jerry is still churning across the Atlantic and will approach the Leeward Islands on Friday. In the Eastern Pacific, Tropical Storm Lorena is hugging the southwestern coast of Mexico and unleashing strong winds and heavy rains along its path. It should regain hurricane strength later today or tonight. While Tropical Storms Kiko and Mario currently don’t pose any threat to land, the latter is expected to strengthen to a hurricane by tonight. This GeoColor-enhanced imagery was created by NOAA's partners at the Cooperative Institute for Research in the Atmosphere. The GOES East geostationary satellite, also known as GOES-16, provides coverage of the Western Hemisphere, including the United States, the Atlantic Ocean and the eastern Pacific. The satellite's high-resolution imagery provides optimal viewing of severe weather events, including thunderstorms, tropical storms, and hurricanes. &lt;a href="https://www.nesdis.noaa.gov/content/tropical-activity-ramping-september" rel="noreferrer nofollow"&gt;www.nesdis.noaa.gov/content/tropical-activity-ramping-sep...&lt;/a&gt;
context_page_description: During 2019, tropical cyclones formed within seven different tropical cyclone basins, located within various parts of the Atlantic, Pacific and Indian Oceans. During the year, a total of 150 systems formed with 102 of these developing further and were named by the responsible warning centre. The strongest tropical cyclone of the year was Typhoon Halong, which was estimated to have a minimum barometric pressure of 905 hPa. Hurricane Dorian has the highest wind-speed, with 1-minute sustained wind speed of 185 mph.
  Similar to the previous year, 2019 was above average in terms of the number of storms. The most active basin in the year was the Western Pacific, which documented 29 named systems. The Eastern Pacific had an average season, although many of the storms were rather weak and short-lived, therefore the number of hurricanes was the least since 2010. The North Atlantic hurricane season experienced an above average number of tropical storm intensity systems, numbering 18, though most were rather weak and short-lived, especially late in the season. In the North Indian Ocean basin it was extremely active, breaking many records.
context_section_description: During 2019, tropical cyclones formed within seven different tropical cyclone basins, located within various parts of the Atlantic, Pacific and Indian Oceans. During the year, a total of 150 systems formed with 102 of these developing further and were named by the responsible warning centre. The strongest tropical cyclone of the year was Typhoon Halong, which was estimated to have a minimum barometric pressure of 905 hPa (26.72 inHg). Hurricane Dorian has the highest wind-speed, with 1-minute sustained wind speed of 185 mph (295 km/h).
  Similar to the previous year, 2019 was above average in terms of the number of storms. The most active basin in the year was the Western Pacific, which documented 29 named systems. The Eastern Pacific had an average season, although many of the storms were rather weak and short-lived, therefore the number of hurricanes was the least since 2010 (7). The North Atlantic hurricane season experienced an above average number of tropical storm intensity systems, numbering 18, though most were rather weak and short-lived, especially late in the season. In the North Indian Ocean basin it was extremely active, breaking many records. This included Cyclone Kyarr, the strongest Arabian Sea Cyclone on record and second strongest ever in the North Indian Ocean. Activity across the southern hemisphere's three basins - South-West Indian, Australian, and South Pacific - was fairly significant, with the regions recording 25 named storms altogether, with the most intense Southern Hemisphere cyclone of the year, Cyclone Ambali from the Southwest Indian Ocean basin peaking at 155 mph (250 km/h) and 930 millibars.
  The deadliest tropical cyclone of the year was Intense Tropical Cyclone Idai in the South-West Indian Ocean, which killed at least 1,303 people in Mozambique, Malawi, Zimbabwe, and Madagascar and the costliest tropical cyclone of the year was Typhoon Hagibis in the Western Pacific Ocean, which caused more than $15 billion in damage after striking Japan.
caption: Six simultaneous tropical cyclones in the Eastern Pacific and North Atlantic on September 19. From left to right: Kiko, Mario, Lorena, Imelda, Humberto and Jerry
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