2025 ATLANTIC HURRICANE SEASON – PART 1
The 2025 Atlantic season will be remembered as strange and top-heavy: only 13 named storms and 5 hurricanes, but a remarkable 4 major hurricanes and 3 Category 5s, generating about 133 ACE units—well above normal despite below-average storm counts. A late start, long quiet stretches, and then explosive bursts of intense activity, capped by Hurricane Melissa’s catastrophic strike on Jamaica, have made this one of the most powerful but uneven seasons on record, with no U.S. hurricane landfalls for the first time since 2015.
ANDREA
Tropical Storm Andrea was a short-lived, weak system over the open central Atlantic that never threatened land. It contributed almost nothing to seasonal damage or fatalities and is mainly notable for marking a very late start to the season on June 23.
BARRY
Tropical Storm Barry formed in the Bay of Campeche and quickly moved into eastern Mexico, bringing flooding rains to parts of the Yucatán Peninsula, northeastern Mexico, and nearby Central America. Barry caused freshwater flooding, landslides, infrastructure damage, and at least eight fatalities, with several people swept away in vehicles or by fast-rising rivers.
CHANTAL
Tropical Storm Chantal formed just off the Southeast U.S. coast and made landfall in South Carolina, then tracked inland through the Carolinas and Mid-Atlantic. The storm produced 7–8 inches of rain in parts of North Carolina, significant flash flooding, dozens of water rescues, river surges to near-record levels, an EF1 tornado at a jetport, and six flood-related deaths, with damage estimated near $500 million.
DEXTER
Tropical Storm Dexter spun up from a stalled front off the North Carolina coast and stayed over the open Atlantic. Despite moderate strength and a long-lived circulation that later became a powerful extratropical low near Europe, Dexter never directly impacted land in a major way and produced no known deaths or significant damage.
ERIN
Hurricane Erin was the season’s first Category 5 hurricane, roaring across the Atlantic near the northern Leeward Islands before recurving well offshore of the U.S. East Coast. Erin brought catastrophic flooding and damage to parts of Cape Verde, dangerous surf and coastal flooding from the northern Caribbean into the Mid-Atlantic and New England, and at least a dozen fatalities, including multiple flood deaths and drownings tied to rough seas.
FERNAND
Tropical Storm Fernand meandered over the open Atlantic between Bermuda and the Azores, occasionally strengthening but mostly battling shear and cooler water. It remained an ocean storm, generating rough seas and some minor impacts but no documented deaths or significant losses.
GABRIELLE
Hurricane Gabrielle formed in the central Atlantic and eventually became a Category 4 hurricane east-southeast of Bermuda before turning toward the Azores and Iberia. While it stayed mostly over water, Gabrielle produced high surf along the U.S. East Coast and Bermuda, localized damage in the Azores, and heavy rain and flooding in eastern Spain where its remnants caused more than $10 million in damage.
To be continued tomorrow with the rest of the season’s storms, including the rare back-to-back Category 5s and Hurricane Melissa’s devastating landfall in Jamaica.
