The 2017 Hurricane Season Really Is More Intense Than Normal<br />Behind that are five seasons that produced 19 named storms apiece, one<br />that produced 18, three that had 16 and four that had 15, according to Weather Underground, which maintains a list of the "top 10 busiest Atlantic hurricane seasons." By the end of November, that list will almost certainly include 2017.<br />More named storms have developed in the first three<br />and a half months of the six-month hurricane season than developed in the entirety of the 1997, 1999, 2002, 2006, 2009, 2014 or 2015 seasons, according to National Hurricane Center and Weather Underground data.<br />Mr. Henson said he would not be surprised if 2017 were the second year to run<br />through the alphabet of names, which would mean at least 21 named storms.<br />Four of the seven — Harvey, Irma, Jose and Maria — have reached Category 3 or higher, the threshold for a major hurricane on the Saffir-Simpson scale.<br />Of the 13 named storms so far in 2017, seven have been hurricanes, a number<br />matched or exceeded at this point in the season only four times since 1995.<br />But this year, AccuWeather estimated that Hurricanes Harvey<br />and Irma might cost a combined $290 billion: two storms producing double the economic damage of four in 2005.
