Atlantic Hurricane Season 2024: Florida Walloped, North Carolina Sees Catastrophe

The extremely active 2024 Atlantic Hurricane Season is coming to an end and it is time to take a look back at Helene, Milton and all of the other hurricanes and tropical storms that were in the news this year.

While this hurricane season will go down as one that was hyperactive in terms of Accumulated Cyclone Energy (ACE), most will surely remember it by how many hurricanes made landfall along the Gulf Coast and pushed through the East.

Five different hurricanes roared ashore between Texas and Florida and their impacts were felt throughout the Appalachians, especially in western North Carolina.

The final damage toll from the season may not be nailed down until early 2025, but early estimates placed damage from Helene and Milton north of $50 Billion alone. More importantly, hundreds of people were killed by the storms from Florida to North Carolina.

Let’s take a look back at some of the highlights and lowlights of the season:

Florida Hammered Again And Again And Again

Three hurricanes in just three months clobbered Florida’s Gulf Coast changing life as it is known in the sunshine state and the geography of the state itself.

Hurricane Debby: The first hurricane of the trio hit in early August and brought heavy rain, tornadoes and gusty winds from Florida’s Big Bend to the Carolinas and as far north as Quebec.

Hurricane Helene’s Florida Strike: Florida’s bigger problems began in late September as the one-two punch of Helene and Milton unraveled. Hundreds to thousands of homes and businesses were inundated with storm surge and rainfall. This is particularly the case around the greater Tampa Bay Area, where ten people drowned in their homes in Pinellas County and most barrier islands were buried in enormous amounts of sand.

Meteorologists, emergency managers and residents had to worry about hurricane debris causing more damage in a second hurricane less than two weeks after Helene.

Hurricane Milton: Anxiety levels in the region increased ten-fold as Milton became one of the fastest intensifying hurricanes in the Gulf of Mexico just days before approaching Tampa Bay. The fear of a potentially benchmark-setting 15-foot storm surge caused mass evacuations. Many were stuck riding out the latest storm in their homes since hotels across Central Florida were booked by people who remained homeless or in damaged structures following Helene. Many compared Milton’s forecast to a simulation of the region’s worst-case scenario used by emergency managers.

Milton ultimately came ashore as a Category 3 hurricane near Siesta Key, Florida, south of Tampa Bay. Sarasota and Manatee counties were inundated to the tops of first stories close to landfall while Fort Myers and Naples saw several feet of surge there. Gusts likely surpassed 100 mph near the landfall site.

Milton’s strong winds and storm surge also cut a new pass through a barrier island near Englewood, Florida, which is being called Milton Pass by locals. This new pass comes two weeks after Helene ripped open Midnight Pass on Siesta Key, which was widened by Milton.

This southward landfall lessened the impacts of storm surge, but greatly amplified the impacts of rainfall and wind across Central Florida.

Extreme winds ravaged parts of Tampa Bay, including the complete destruction of St. Petersburg’s Tropicana Field, home of the Tampa Bay Rays. Wind gusts may have reached 100 mph. The city also received around 20 inches of rainfall, replacing the expected storm surge flooding with rainfall flooding. Hurricane-force gusts were seen as far east as Orlando and Daytona Beach as Milton accelerated eastward.

(PERSPECTIVE: Milton’s Tornado Outbreak)

Hurricane Milton spawned 46 tornadoes in Florida from just before midnight on Oct. 8 through Oct. 9. An EF3 Tornado in St. Lucie killed six people, making it the deadliest outbreak of tornadoes in over 25 years.

Asheville, Appalachians Devastated

While most storms drop the vast majority of their rainfall near the coast, there have been several examples that have bucked the trend in recent years. This year, Hurricane Helene left that trend in the dust in the most unfortunate way.

At one time on Sept. 27, the National Weather Service had over 20 flash flood emergencies – their highest level flash flood alert – in effect from the Atlanta, Georgia, metro to southwest Virginia. That was the most issued for any day in at least 13 years.

The remnants of Helene dropped up to 30 inches of rainfall and flooded much of western North Carolina. The flooding in the region surpassed any flooding seen there since 1916. Thousands of roads, highways and bridges, hundreds of miles of powerlines and telecommunications lines and most freshwater systems were damaged or destroyed.

Asheville, North Carolina, and surrounding communities took the brunt of the extreme flooding. Some communities were nearly completely wiped out. The Biltmore Village and River Arts District were severely affected and also cut off in the days after Helene’s arrival due to the loss of infrastructure.

Around 100 people were killed in North Carolina alone while at least hundreds of homes were unliveable. Hundreds of thousands of households are expecting federal and/or state assistance.

(MORE: Hurricane Helene Recap)

Other Notables From The Season:

-Eighteen named storms, including five major hurricanes: This extremely active season also included two Category 5 hurricanes for the first time since 2019.

–Beryl, Earliest Cat 5, Then Texas Threat: After slamming the Caribbean island of Carriacou as a Category 4, Beryl became the record earliest Category 5 Atlantic Basin hurricane on the evening of July 1. The following day, its winds topped out at 165 mph, the strongest July hurricane by wind speed on record in the Atlantic Basin. A week later, Beryl brought hurricane conditions, a foot of rain and power outages to the Houston metro area. Beryl went onto drop tornadoes and heavy rain from Texas to New Hampshire, including more than 40 tornadoes in the greater Shreveport area.

-Surprise Hurricane Oscar: On October 19, a batch of thunderstorms rapidly intensified into a micro-sized hurricane near the Turks and Caicos. Oscar was the smallest hurricane in more than half a century and was likely under-estimated in the day or two before it became a hurricane.

-Rafael + Blizzard, but A Rare Fizzle: Rafael was a rare November major hurricane that became a Category 3 twice in the Caribbean and Gulf of Mexico, and then never made landfall along the Gulf Coast. While Rafael was winding down in the Gulf, the first major winter storm of the season was kicking off a blizzard in New Mexico.

(PERSPECTIVE: Rafael, A November Oddity)

Everybody Forgets Chris: Probably one of the funniest situations that we have seen here at weather.com played out in the midst of Beryl. In early July, we saw search trends skyrocket for what was next after Beryl struck Texas. Well, it wasn’t ‘Hurricane Chris’ as people had frequently searched for. That’s because the third named storm (that didn’t become a hurricane) had already happened back in late June. The next storm would actually be Debby several weeks later.

Closing Thoughts

This year saw a lot of impacts across vast amounts of real estate, including evacuations, interruptions and even changes in daily life for some parts of our own weather.com family. We wanted to get their end of season thoughts.

Caroline Aylward, an Asheville resident and filmmaker with The Weather Company, felt the brunt of Helene in North Carolina.

“I would like for people outside of this area to never forget the magic of Western North Carolina. We lost a lot but these mountains still have so much to offer and we need your help. Some areas are untouched and some completely wiped off of the earth. It’s been hard to process. But supporting our local businesses is what will keep this town thriving! Lots of them are back in action and need customers.”

(Caroline’s Journey After Helene: ‘Showering Out Of A Bucket’ Six Weeks The Storm | Her Tour Of Asheville)

Jan Childs, who you’ll see writing a large chunk of our news updates here at weather.com, recently traveled back to her hometown on Anna Maria Island, south of Tampa Bay. Three storms – Debby, Helene and Milton – all caused damage.

She says “Helene was the worst, flooding the ground floor of nearly every structure on the island, including homes dating back 60 years or more. Most of the debris piles are gone and in many cases from the outside you’d never know a home was damaged. But driving or walking through neighborhoods two months later, you can still smell the mold and wetness. And if you get a peek inside a window, you’ll see that many homes are completely gutted due to the damage.”

They both hope this hurricane season changes how we think about hurricanes.

Caroline gives this advice: “Never underestimate the power of mother nature. Over-preparing for an incoming hurricane won’t hurt you. I will always fill up my bathtub with water, buy extra food and water, fill up my gas tank and get cash out before any storm now!” She’s encouraging folks to buy local in Asheville.

“I hope this year is a turning point in terms of planning for storms, evacuating when told to do so and, on a broader note, where and how we build homes,” Jan adds.

Jonathan Belles has been a graphics meteorologist and writer for weather.com for 8 years and also assists in the production of videos for The Weather Channel en español. His favorite weather is tropical weather, but also enjoys covering high-impact weather and news stories and winter storms. He’s a two-time graduate of Florida State University and a proud graduate of St. Petersburg College.