Hurricanes - 2006 Atlantic Hurricane Season

Defying all predictions for a busy 2006 Atlantic Hurricane Season, the season began June 1st and officially came to a quiet close on November 30th. Although 2006 might have seemed tame compared with the devastation of 2004 and 2005, the season's totals -- 9 named storms, 5 hurricanes, 2 of them major -- were actually right at the historical average for the past 150 years, according to data from the National Hurricane Center.

In 2006, a rapidly forming El Nĩno phenomenon, combined with the presence of the Saharan Air Layer over the tropical Atlantic, contributed to all tropical activity ceasing after October 2nd. Forecasters' revised predictions as the season continued were made hazy by these unexpected events and even the most sophisticated computer models could not foresee El Nĩno continuing throughout the season to dampen tropical activity in the Atlantic. An El Nĩno phenomenon occurs when warm waters in the Pacific affect the atmosphere and increase westerly winds. As a result, Atlantic hurricanes were weakened in 2006 and forced away from the United States’ coast by the westerly winds during the Atlantic Hurricane season.

One system, Tropical Storm Zeta from the 2005 season, continued through early January of 2006, only the second time on record that had happened.

Tropical Storm Alberto was responsible for 2 indirect deaths when it made landfall near the Apalachicola Bay in Florida’s Panhandle on June 13, 2006.

Hurricane Ernesto caused heavy rainfall in Haiti, and directly killed at least 7 people in Haiti and the United States.

Four more hurricanes formed after Ernesto in 2006, including the strongest storms of the season, Helene and Gordon. Four of 2006's five hurricanes –

Florence,
Gordon,
Helene
and Issac

-- each commenced a westward path across the Atlantic toward the United States, only to veer northward and proceed out to sea where they dissipated.
But despite the 2006 respite, forecasters were quick to point out that hurricane activity moves in cycles and the Atlantic basin remains in a very active area that could last another 20 years.

The storms for the 2006 season were as follows:

Tropical Storm Alberto
Tropical Storm Beryl
Tropical Storm Chris
Tropical Storm Debby
Hurricane Ernesto
Hurricane Florence
Hurricane Gordon
Hurricane Helene
Hurricane Isaac