Here are the five states most affected by hurricanes
With hurricane season still raging, here’s a look at the five states most frequently hit by hurricanes.
This year’s hurricane season began “early and hard,” claiming lives across the United States, flooding streets and leaving thousands without power – and it’s far from over.
In late May, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration predicted an above-average probability of 85% in its forecast for the 2024 Atlantic hurricane season. The season runs from June 1 to November 30. Last week, however, NOAA raised that probability to 90%, with 17 to 24 storms expected to form—eight to 13 of which could develop into hurricanes.
In an average year, there are 14 named storms, seven of which are hurricanes.
People also read: The 2024 hurricane season is far from over. How to apply for FEMA assistance
Texas was the first U.S. state to be hit by a Category 1 hurricane this season when it made landfall as a Category 1 hurricane on July 8. It broke several records, including being the earliest Category 4 and 5 hurricane in history. Beryl left at least 36 people dead.
On August 5, Hurricane Debby made landfall in Florida as a Category 1 storm. Debby was downgraded to a tropical storm before making landfall in South Carolina for a second time.
This week, a disturbance in the Atlantic waters developed into Tropical Storm Ernesto, the fifth named storm of the 2024 hurricane season.
The storm formed at sea on Monday, moved toward the Caribbean, and intensified into a Category 1 hurricane on Wednesday morning as it passed north of Puerto Rico, causing flooding and widespread power outages across the U.S. territory.
More about Ernesto: Potential Tropical Cyclone 5 “moving rapidly westward.” Is Texas in its path? See Tracker
Texas is the second most hurricane-prone state in the US
Based on data through 2022, Texas has been hit by more hurricanes than 48 other states. Only Florida has experienced more hurricanes than the Lone Star State.
As hurricane season continues, five U.S. states have been hit by more hurricanes. Some of them could be hit again by the force of nature in the coming months; these states often experience the highest levels of activity, according to meteorologists.
A major hurricane is a Category 3 or higher hurricane on the Saffir-Simpson scale of hurricane intensity, and according to previous USA TODAY reports, only four Category 5 hurricanes have made landfall since 1851.
LIST: Top 5 states with the most hurricanes
Here are the five states most frequently hit by hurricanes. The list does not include statistics from 2024, which are not collected until the end of the season.
It also does not include a complete list of numbers for 2023 – a year in which the five states with the most hurricanes saw only one Category 4 hurricane (Hurricane Idalia in Florida), meteorologist Neal Dorst of NOAA, the Atlantic Oceanographic and Meteorological Laboratory and the Hurricane Research Division told USA TODAY.
No. 1: Florida
The Sunshine State tops the list with 120 hurricanes (37 of which are Category 3 to 5). Two of them – Hurricane Michael in October 2018 and Hurricane Andrew in August 1992 – were classified as Category 5. Both hurricanes claimed thousands of lives.
2nd place: Texas
The Lone Star State has experienced 64 hurricanes (19 of which were Category 3 or 4). The state has never experienced a Category 5 hurricane.
3rd place: Louisiana
Several thousand miles southwest of Louisiana, the state has recorded 63 hurricanes (19 of them Category 3 to 5). The state’s only Category 5 storm is one of the state’s deadliest: Hurricane Katrina in August 2005 claimed nearly 1,400 lives and caused billions of dollars in damage. The storm reached sustained winds of 175 miles per hour.
4th place: North Carolina
In the Tar Heel State, North Carolina has had 58 hurricanes (seven of which were Category 3 or Category 4) and never a Category 5 hurricane.
5th place: South Carolina
A little further down the coast, South Carolina recorded 32 hurricanes, including five Category 3 or 4 hurricanes. The Palmetto State has never been hit by a Category 5 hurricane, according to the data.
Why are some states hit by hurricanes more often than others?
The reason for the high ranking of these five states is “a combination of long coastlines and the paths of Atlantic hurricanes,” said Dorst.
Most storms in the Atlantic, he explained, are driven by the circulation of the subtropical ridge that dominates the western Atlantic.
“This drives storms into Florida and, once they pass the peninsula, into the Gulf of Mexico toward Texas or Louisiana,” Dorst said. “The storms that pass east of Florida will curve north and east, but could make landfall on the coast of the Carolinas because their coasts jut out to the east.”
The coasts of Mississippi, Alabama and Georgia are at risk, he added, but they are also relatively short, which is why there are statistically fewer landing sites there.
