2008 Atlantic hurricane season

**2008 Atlantic hurricane season**
 **Total damage** | $47.53 Billion (2008 USD)

The **2008 Atlantic hurricane season** was an active hurricane season with seventeen depressions, sixteen of them becoming tropical storms, eight of those storms becoming hurricanes, and five of those storms becoming major hurricanes (Category 3+). The season officially started on June 1 and ended on November 30. However, the formation of Tropical Storm Arthur caused the season to start one day early. This season was very costly. In fact, this season is the fourth costliest on record, with over $47.5 billion in damage (2008 USD).

## Storms

### Tropical Storm Arthur

 Duration
 Peak intensity

Arthur was a short-lived tropical cyclone that made landfall in northeastern Belize as a tropical storm. The storm produced devastating floods and killed five people in Belize, causing an estimated 78 million dollars worth of damage in that country

### Hurricane Bertha

 Duration
 Peak intensity

Bertha was an early season category 3 hurricane (on the Saffir-Simpson Hurricane Scale) that brought tropical storm conditions to Bermuda and became the longest-lived Atlantic July tropical cyclone on record.

### Tropical Storm Cristobal

 Duration
 Peak intensity

### Hurricane Dolly

 Duration
 Peak intensity

Dolly made landfall in extreme southern Texas as a category 1 hurricane on the Saffir-Simpson Hurricane Scale and caused some significant wind and flood damage.

### Tropical Storm Edouard

 Duration
 Peak intensity

Edouard was a short-lived tropical storm that made landfall along the upper Texas coast.

### Tropical Storm Fay

 Duration
 Peak intensity

Fay was a long-lived tropical storm that made eight landfalls – including a record four landfalls in Florida – and produced torrential rainfall that caused extensive floods across the Dominican Republic, Haiti, Cuba, and Florida.

### Hurricane Gustav

 Duration
 Peak intensity

Gustav moved erratically through the Greater Antilles into the Gulf of Mexico, eventually making landfall on the coast of Louisiana. It briefly became a category 4 hurricane on the Saffir-Simpson Hurricane Scale and caused many deaths and considerable damage in Haiti, Cuba, and Louisiana.

### Hurricane Hanna

 Duration
 Peak intensity

Hanna was a tropical cyclone that was briefly a hurricane over the Caicos Islands. Hanna also made landfall in the United States as a strong tropical storm near the border between North and South Carolina. Impacts from Hanna were greatest in Haiti, where heavy rainfall and subsequent flooding resulted in a large loss of life.

### Hurricane Ike

*Main article: Hurricane Ike*

 Duration
 Peak intensity

Ike was a long-lived Cape Verde hurricane that caused extensive damage and many
deaths across portions of the Caribbean and along the coasts of Texas and Louisiana. It reached its peak intensity as a Category 4 hurricane (on the Saffir-Simpson Hurricane Scale) over the open waters of the central Atlantic, directly impacting the Turks and Caicos Islands and Great Inagua Island in the southeastern Bahamas before affecting much of the island of Cuba. Ike, with its associated storm surge, then caused extensive damage across parts of the northwestern Gulf Coast when it made landfall along the upper Texas coast at the upper end of Category 2 intensity.

### Tropical Storm Josephine

 Duration
 Peak intensity

Josephine formed in the far eastern Atlantic Ocean and dissipated just a few days later over open waters due to strong vertical wind shear.

### Hurricane Kyle

 Duration
 Peak intensity

Kyle was a category one hurricane on the Saffir-Simpson Hurricane Scale that made landfall in southwestern Nova Scotia.

### Tropical Storm Laura

 Duration
 Peak intensity

Short-lived Laura remained well out at sea over the North Atlantic.

### Tropical Storm Marco

 Duration
 Peak intensity

Marco was an extremely small tropical cyclone that made landfall on the Gulf coast of Mexico between Tuxpan and Veracruz.

### Tropical Storm Nana

 Duration
 Peak intensity

Nana was a short-lived, weak tropical storm that remained over the open tropical Atlantic Ocean throughout its lifetime and threatened no land areas.

### Hurricane Omar

 Duration
 Peak intensity

Omar, which directly impacted the Leeward Islands, underwent rapid intensification (up to a category 4 hurricane on the Saffir-Simpson Hurricane Scale) and an immediately subsequent rapid weakening.

### Tropical Depression Sixteen

 Duration
 Peak intensity

Tropical Depression Sixteen was a large and sprawling depression that formed over the northwestern Caribbean Sea and made landfall about 24 h later in northeastern Honduras.

### Hurricane Paloma

 Duration
 Peak intensity

Hurricane Paloma was a powerful hurricane that formed in the western Caribbean Sea and impacted the Cayman Islands before making landfall in Cuba and rapidly weakening. Paloma reached category 4 intensity (on the Saffir-Simpson Hurricane Scale) and became the second-strongest November Atlantic hurricane on record.

## Storm names

* Bertha
* Cristobal
* Dolly
* Edouard
* Fay
* Gustav
* Ike
* Josephine
* Kyle
* Laura
* Marco
* Nana
* Paloma
* Rene *(unused)*
* Sally *(unused)*
* Teddy *(unused)*
* Vicky *(unused)*
* Wilfred *(unused)*

### Retirement

On April 22, 2009, at the 31st Session of the World Meteorological Organization's Regional Association IV Hurricane Committee, the WMO retired the names **Gustav**, **Ike**, and **Paloma** from its rotating name lists. The names were replaced with *Gonzalo*, *Isaias*, and *Paulette* for the 2014 season.

## References

1. ↑ http://www.nhc.noaa.gov/data/tcr/AL012008\_Arthur.pdf
2. ↑ http://www.nhc.noaa.gov/data/tcr/AL022008\_Bertha.pdf
3. ↑ http://www.nhc.noaa.gov/data/tcr/AL042008\_Dolly.pdf
4. ↑ http://www.nhc.noaa.gov/data/tcr/AL052008\_Edouard.pdf
5. ↑ http://www.nhc.noaa.gov/data/tcr/AL062008\_Fay.pdf
6. ↑ http://www.nhc.noaa.gov/data/tcr/AL072008\_Gustav.pdf
7. ↑ http://www.nhc.noaa.gov/data/tcr/AL082008\_Hanna.pdf
8. ↑ http://www.nhc.noaa.gov/data/tcr/AL092008\_Ike.pdf
9. ↑ http://www.nhc.noaa.gov/data/tcr/AL102008\_Josephine.pdf
10. ↑ http://www.nhc.noaa.gov/data/tcr/AL112008\_Kyle.pdf
11. ↑ http://www.nhc.noaa.gov/data/tcr/AL122008\_Laura.pdf
12. ↑ http://www.nhc.noaa.gov/data/tcr/AL132008\_Marco.pdf
13. ↑ http://www.nhc.noaa.gov/data/tcr/AL142008\_Nana.pdf
14. ↑ http://www.nhc.noaa.gov/data/tcr/AL152008\_Omar.pdf
15. ↑ http://www.nhc.noaa.gov/data/tcr/AL162008\_Sixteen.pdf
16. ↑ http://www.nhc.noaa.gov/data/tcr/AL172008\_Paloma.pdf