Atlantic Hurricane Season 2016: How This Season Stacks Up So Far

The 2016 Atlantic hurricane season has been a busy one so far. 

There have been 14 named storms, including six hurricanes and one additional tropical depression, before the end of October in the Atlantic Basin. All but four of these systems impacted land: Tropical Storm Fiona, Tropical Depression Eight, Tropical Storm Ian, and Tropical Storm Lisa.

Hurricanes Hermine and Matthew had large impacts to the United States this fall. Tropical storms Colin, Bonnie, and Julia also brought heavy rain and high waves to America. Tropical Depression Eight indirectly impacted the Carolina coast by bringing breezy weather and adding to the waves that then Hurricane Gaston created and pushed west.

 Here's a full roundup of the activity we've seen thus far.

Measuring Up

So far, this has been an above-average season for tropical cyclones in the Atlantic across the board

Another metric of seasonal activity is essentially adding up the longevity and intensity of each named storm. This is called Accumulated Cyclone Energy, or ACE for short.

Long-lived, intense hurricanes have a high ACE index. Short-lived, weak tropical storms, have a low ACE index. The ACE of a season is the sum of the ACE for each storm and takes into account the number, strength and duration of all the tropical storms in the season.

ACE is often used to compare seasons to show how active or inactive a season was, in effect giving a measure of the quality, rather than the quantity, of tropical cyclones in a given year.

According to Colorado State University, ACE for this year is 34 percent higher than the 1981-2010 climatological average. Intense, long-lived hurricanes Matthew, Nicole, and Gaston largely contributed to this higher-than-average season.

Six Hurricanes

Hurricane Alex formed before you could even abandon your New Year's resolutions. As a hurricane, Alex brought tropical storm-force winds and several inches of rain to the Azores archipelago.

In late July, it appeared that there might be a "Caribbean Cruiser" type of storm that would transit the entire Caribbean as a tropical storm, but pre-Earl had other things in mind. The cruising part of this title is correct, however — Earl crossed the length of the Caribbean Sea, often at speeds of more than 20 mph.

(MORE: Earl's Impacts Felt Across the Caribbean)

Tropical storm-force winds were felt on numerous islands even before Earl could technically became a tropical storm with a closed circulation. It became the first of two hurricanes that maxed out with sustained winds of 80 mph just before making its landfall in Belize. Rainfall flooding from Earl killed more than three dozen people in Mexico.

Gaston was the only Category 3 or stronger storm to form in the Atlantic during the first half of the 2016 season. Gaston's maximum sustained winds peaked at 120 mph on two separate occasions before weakening to a tropical storm as it neared the Azores.

Nobody will forget Hermine. The system that became Hermine was tracked all the way across the Atlantic in August as a struggling tropical low. The area of low pressure was finally able to close off a tight circulation center in the Gulf of Mexico and quickly developed after that.

(PHOTOS: Hermine's Wrath Felt From Florida Up the East Coast)

Hurricane Hermine made landfall in the Florida Big Bend, south of Tallahassee, as a Category 1 hurricane with 80 mph maximum sustained winds. Widespread power loss was reported across three counties, and scattered power outages were reported into the mid-Atlantic as Hermine moved northeastward.

As we got into late September and early October, two more hurricanes made names for themselves.

Hurricane Matthew, this year's deadliest storm, churned for days in the Caribbean while gaining strength. Matthew explosively intensified into a rare Category 5 hurricane with winds of 160 mph off the coast of Colombia.

Matthew blasted through the Greater Antilles, making landfall in both Haiti and Cuba as a Category 4 on Oct. 4 before heading through the Bahamas and to the U.S. coastline.

(MORE: Weeks Later, Haiti in Ruins from Hurricane Matthew's Effects)

Matthew scraped up Florida's east coast mere miles off the Space and First coasts of eastern Florida. The most destructive winds, often over hurricane force, paralleled just off the coast from Cape Canaveral through Northeast Florida and coastal Georgia before Matthew's center finally came ashore near McClellanville, South Carolina, as a minimal hurricane.

Arguably, the biggest impact Matthew had in the United States was its freshwater flooding in the Carolinas. More than 15 inches of rain fell in some places. Additionally, storm surge along the coast from Florida to North Carolina flooded coastal cities, narrowed beaches through erosion and backed up rivers. Weeks later, the National Weather Service observed these waters still advancing down the watershed toward the Atlantic.

While Matthew was causing destruction along the coast, Nicole was causing forecasters much angst in the central Atlantic.

Then Tropical Storm Nicole meandered a few hundred miles south of Bermuda for much of its life, but this location was close enough to cause concern for the forecasts for both Matthew and Nicole. If Nicole migrated any closer to the United States, the end game for Matthew could have been much different, but instead, Matthew weakened and did not approach the coast for a second trip.

As Matthew fell apart, Nicole gained strength and latitude. During a phase of rapid intensification, Hurricane Nicole became a Category 4 hurricane with maximum sustained winds of 130 mph. About a day or so later, Hurricane Nicole passed directly over Bermuda as a Category 3.

(MORE: Hurricane Nicole Brings a Smell of Ripped Vegetation to Bermuda, Storm Recap)

Other Atlantic Seasonal Highlights 

• Tropical Storm Colin and Hurricane Hermine made landfall within 50 miles of each other. Colin made landfall in June near Dekle Beach, Florida, in rural Taylor County. Hermine made landfall just east of St. Marks, Florida.
• Hurricane Hermine busted a more-than-1,000-day hurricane drought in the Gulf of Mexico.
• Hermine was the first Florida hurricane since 2005's Hurricane Wilma.
• Matthew had the lowest pressure (934 millibars) and highest sustained winds (160 mph) of any Atlantic hurricane this season.
• Matthew broke a record nine-plus-year streak without a Category 5 Atlantic hurricane, and became a Category 5 at the southernmost latitude of any storm of that strength.
• Colin and Danielle became the earliest third and fourth named storms in recorded history.

MORE ON WEATHER.COM: Hurricane Hermine's Life