MIDWAY, Fla. (WTXL) -- No tropical disturbances are expected to form in the near-term future around the Atlantic basin.
The 2016 hurricane season draws to a close today. In total, 15 named storms developed, including the awkward January Hurricane Alex. Alex was among seven hurricanes that formed. Three of those (Gaston, Matthew, and Nicole) achieved major hurricane status of category 3 strength or more.
The number of named storms is above average for the first time since 2012.
The local impact from Hurricane Hermine on the morning of Sept. 1 may be most noteworthy for the Big Bend region, as it was the closest approach of a hurricane's central "eye" to the region since Hurricane Kate in 1985, and the first hurricane to make landfall along the shore of Apalachee Bay since Hurricane Alma in 1966. Hermine was also the first hurricane to hit Florida since Wilma in 2005.
Major Hurricane Matthew brushed along the Florida Atlantic coast in early October, but an official landfall did not occur until it weakened below major hurricane force in the Carolinas. Thus, the long-standing streak of no major hurricane landfalls in the United States, which started in 2005, continues.
Five named storms (tropical storms and hurricane combined) reached United States land, the most since 2008.