November 30 marked the official end of the 2024 Atlantic hurricane season, one that weather authorities said had an 85% chance of being an above-normal season and only a 5% chance of being a below-normal season.
So, how bad was it?
Hurricane Milton barreled through Florida’s west coast arriving less than two weeks after Hurricane Helene sideswiped an already battered Sarasota, which had experienced flooding in a deluge of rainfall caused by Hurricane Debby.
“The 2024 season was a top-10 active year in terms of the number of tropical storms that developed,” said Stephen Mullens, assistant instructional professor of meteorology at the University of Florida. “But most of the hurricane activity – and the most impactful hurricanes – occurred after what is typically peak season.”
According to the National Hurricane Center (NHC), the 2024 hurricane season was characterized by abnormal and record-breaking hurricanes. Hurricane Milton was one of three hurricanes to hit Florida in 2024, and one of 15 to develop in the Atlantic this season.
With Milton, the 2024 hurricane season has now tied with the 1871, 1886, 1964 and 2004 records for the most hurricanes making landfall in a single season, according to a report by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA).
NOAA’s May forecast predicted an above-average season, estimating 17 to 25 named storms. To date, 15 storms were named. Two hurricanes — Helene and Milton — unpredictably intensified and weakened between Category 1 to Category 5 hurricanes as they moved through and within the Gulf of Mexico.
NOAA’s prediction of above-normal hurricane activity in the Atlantic basin had been attributed to several factors, including near-record ocean temperatures in the Atlantic Ocean and reduced Atlantic trade winds. With warming seas, particularly in the Gulf of Mexico, meteorologists are expecting these chaotic storms to increase in frequency and power.
“Warmer weather likely had some role in the rapid intensification that we saw in several storms this season,” WUFT meteorologist William Maxham said.
Despite this season being less active than predicted, multiple storms wrought catastrophe in the southeast United States.
“There were genuine questions about what was causing the seasons to be much less active than expected,” Mullens said. “But between late September and early October, there were six hurricanes, including major hurricanes Helene and Milton.”
Hurricane Debby
After a mostly quiet spring and summer season, the first hurricane to make landfall in Florida this year was Hurricane Debby near Steinhatchee on Aug. 5. The Category 1 hurricane moved northeast across the eastern Florida Big Bend and into southeast Georgia, reported the National Weather Service (NWS).
Heavy rainfall flooded areas of Sarasota that had never seen flooding. Between five and 10 deaths were blamed on the hurricane.
Debby’s primary impact, the National Weather Service reported, was the slow-moving heavy rainfall and the ensuing flooding, with a reported storm surge of 3 to 5 feet above dry ground across the Nature Coast and southeast Big Bend.
Some flooding persisted as much as three weeks after Debby made landfall along the Suwannee River.
Debby made its presence known in Alachua County, affecting residents and students preparing for fall classes.
“Debby was a significant storm for our area,” said Jen Grice, director of Emergency Management of Alachua County. “So significant that we received a FEMA Individual Assistance (IA) declaration for it.”
With Debby, Grice said there were quite a few damaged or majorly damaged property – primarily caused by downed trees.
However, storms of this magnitude come with many other risks.
Storm surge raises water levels over the predicted tide, according to the National Hurricane Center, and can be dangerous because the rushing water can demolish buildings and the encroaching sea can impact public health in myriad ways.
This was the unfortunate reality with Hurricane Helene.
Hurricane Helene
Helene peaked with winds of 140 mph and made landfall as a record-breaking Category 4 hurricane, causing major damage in several Southern states.
Data analyzed by The Washington Post found that Hurricane Helene broke storm surge records by over two feet in six coastal towns and cities in Florida.
Storm surges, however, were not the only threat.
“For Helene, our biggest threat was high winds,” Grice said. “We saw a significant (number) of downed trees and powerlines. We also experienced widespread power outages.”
Traffic lights hung useless from power lines, and trees blocked roads as thousands navigated a major blackout across multiple states.
North Carolina saw unprecedented damage and loss of life.
“The biggest hurricane story of the year was the flooding in the North Carolina mountains from Helene,” Maxham said. “Hopefully, lessons learned will be that hurricane impacts are not just along the coast. People living there did not realize that they were living where dangerous flooding is possible.”
While the system weakened to a tropical storm upon making its presence felt in North Carolina, the flooding caused historical damage and took the lives of more than 100 people.
Overall, Helene claimed the lives of over 200 people across six states in the southeast United States, including 14 deaths that occurred in Florida, according to an Oct. 7 report published by the FCC.
The fatality numbers were still rising at the time of this writing.
Hurricane Milton
Emergency management teams in Alachua County concentrated on the well-being and safety of those living inland following the aftermath of hurricanes Debby and Helene.
“Our number one focus is always life safety,” Grice said. “One of the first things we do, once it’s safe to go out, is a multi-agency road-clearance response … This is an essential first step to ensure emergency vehicles are able to get where they need to go to respond to 911 calls.”
Lessons learned from the past two storms prompted the county to make operational changes in addition to emphasizing the importance of disaster preparation.
“Our biggest operational adjustment was improvement to our shelter staffing to make the process more efficient,” Grice said.
Shelters were set up and included two that were pet-friendly and one with an emphasis on protecting individuals with special needs. According to Grice, the three shelters housed around 100 people.
These shelters were staffed by county staff and the Florida Department of Health in Alachua County, Grice said. They provided generators for residents as well as vital medical equipment, such as oxygen concentrators.
“What we did see in Milton that was unlike the other two storms [Debby and Helene] was a huge influx of evacuees from other areas,” Grice said. “We sheltered around 700 people. Most of those folks were from the Tampa Bay area. We had not sheltered that many people since Irma in 2017.”
Those regions could not recover as effectively because Hurricane Milton followed so closely behind.
Milton made landfall on Oct. 9 near Siesta Key as a Category 3 storm, breaking the record for the least number of days between two consecutive major hurricanes making landfall in Florida, with a mere 13 days between the two; the next closest sequence in landfalls is 43 days between hurricanes King and Easy in 1950.
As Milton moved closer to Florida, it brought further disaster with twisters.
At around 4 p.m., the day it made landfall, over 50 tornado warnings were issued throughout the state.
The hurricane caused the worst tornado outbreak in Florida history. Specifically, the National Weather Service issued 126 tornado warnings while telling people to stay safe from the threat of tornadoes in a Facebook post.
The National Weather Service concluded that the storm produced 47 tornadoes and high-speed winds that downed trees and powerlines while damaging homes and businesses.
On Oct. 9, Florida had the highest number of tornado outbreaks in a single day and the second most tornado warnings issued in one day in any state, second only to Alabama during the 2011 Super Outbreak.
Coastal towns saw the worst of Milton.
Sarasota resident, Susie Gillum, felt the storm’s impact firsthand but considered herself one of the lucky ones.
“Just the fear of when it came through, just because the wind was so atrocious, it was very, very frightening,” said Gillum, who added that she feels fortunate to have lost power for just a minute because the power lines are underground where she lives.
"That really makes a difference when everybody else is losing their power at 7 o'clock," she said. Then the eye hit at about 8:35 p.m. "It got very eerie because everything got quiet. There was no rain, there was no wind, there was no noise, there was no sound.”
Milton’s unpredictability played a role in Gillum’s hesitant preparation for the storm, to which she warns residents and locals facing future storms:
“If you are in an evacuation zone, please get out. No matter where you go,” said Gillum, “If you can't drive somewhere, go to a shelter, try to go to a friend's house, or if you're in a mobile home, because that's when it becomes life-threatening.”
The visible damage was eclipsed by swaths of Sarasota locals working together to clear roads, check on loved ones and generally rebuild the community physically and emotionally.
However, the damage reached far beyond Sarasota.
Around $1.5 billion to $2.5 billion in total crop and infrastructure losses are estimated by the Florida Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services, $320,000 more than Hurricane Ian cost farmers in 2022.
Over 3.38 million customers were without power in the state.
Heavy rainfall and flash flooding caused widespread damage across the Florida Peninsula, including flooded roadways in Hillsborough County and damaged infrastructure in Volusia County.
As for response and preparation, Alachua County’s Emergency Operations Team (EOT) was ready to help its residents and those from the Tampa Bay area ahead of Milton’s landfall.
Meteorologists have emphasized that a storm of Milton’s caliber has not occurred in the past 100 years in the Tampa Bay area.
In Alachua County, public works, Fire Rescue and the Sheriff’s Office as well as the five utility companies that service the county and the Florida Forest Service worked together in the Emergency Operations Center (EOC) to coordinate the response efforts, said Grice.
The team of over 50 people set up shelters and planned efforts to clean up debris, which has been ongoing since Helene, Grice said.
“The effects of the storm were minimal,” Grice said. “Only a handful of downed trees and powerlines.”
In Sarasota County, where Milton hit harder, the emergency management team dealt with worse effects before and after the storm, with one major worry being a far worse storm surge than with Helene.
“Surge forecasts for Milton were higher than they had been for Helene,” said Sara Nealeigh, media relations officer for Sarasota County Emergency Services. “The surge threat coupled with direct impact wind hazards required a larger evacuation.”
Nealeigh said more than 10,000 residences and thousands of businesses have been impacted due to Milton and Helene. The financial toll is likely to exceed $2 billion for the county.
“It was difficult to get the public to understand the high storm surge risk and act according to county recommendations,” said Jennifer Hubbard, warning coordination meteorologist in the Tampa Bay Area. “The challenge was combating disaster fatigue and making sure everyone was again prepared for a more direct impact.”
Over 2,000 county employees worked to prepare the county and its response efforts. So far, they have collected over 1.6 million cubic yards of storm debris, which can fill 80,000 dumpsters.
With the county calling for the evacuation of levels A, B and C, it opened 11 general population evacuation centers and two for medically dependent persons. This provided shelter for over 8,000 residents.
Recovery is ongoing and assistance is available to Sarasota County residents, Nealeigh said. A disaster recovery center at the Sarasota Municipal Auditorium is open seven days a week for anyone in need.
Nealeigh said the county continues to learn from the different impacts that occur to help improve service for the next season, as well as remain in contact with both the state of Florida and FEMA to help the community access disaster assistance programs.
Hubbard said community education has been a focal point of disaster relief.
“It is incredibly important that people learn what they need to do to be prepared for storms each year to keep themselves safe,” Hubbard said.
At least 24 people died in Hurricane Milton in Florida, according to a report by the FCC.
Season in Retrospect
Forecasters, residents and emergency management personnel are looking to current atmospheric trends and historical data to prepare for future storms.
“The trend is for sea surface temperatures to continue to warm over the next couple of decades,” Mullens said. “This is leading to a greater potential for thunderstorms to become tropical storms and for hurricanes to rapidly intensify and become major hurricanes.”
The question remains the same: How do we prepare for the future?
“Our biggest focus in the coming year will continue to be increasing the resilience of our community through outreach, training and capacity building,” Grice said.
Alachua County Emergency Management’s Facebook posts updates on the projected paths of upcoming storms, shelter and transportation updates and what to do after the storm to stay safe, such as navigating non-functional traffic lights.
The National Weather Service and National Hurricane Center have information on preparing for hurricane season and forecast models for people to follow. NOAA has information for residents to understand how they are at risk during storms and hurricane readiness, among other information.
“The prominence of the National Hurricane Center’s forecasts and communication of impacts from flooding and winds have tremendously helped people stay safe during storms,” Mullens said. “Improved knowledge of and education about storm surge and inland rainfall have allowed residents to better prepare their property and know where they can evacuate to during storms.”
These services aim to help residents prepare for the hurricane season and give updates during and after the storm.
Along with these services, FEMA is offering disaster assistance for those affected by this hurricane season, according to an X post.
But these services still need improvement to be accessible to everyone.
“Education helps, but the biggest issue preventing people from evacuating is money,” Maxham said. “Many people who shelter in place for storms are doing it because they don’t have anywhere to go or transportation. If your home is in a flood zone, it’s not easy to move.”
While the season may have underperformed from a meteorological standpoint, it brought devastating storms marked by abnormal weather systems.
It serves as both a reminder and a warning of what scientists have been forecasting for years: This may be the new reality that Floridians and others in hurricane-prone areas must contend with.
