COLUMBIA, S.C. — Flooding rains, historic storm surges, and powerful winds. 2022’s hurricane season saw some very strong systems impact the U.S.
Over the past 5 years tropical activity has been at or above normal values 4 times. 2022 was part of this trend with 8 hurricanes over the course of the season.
Looking at the storms last year, in total there were 14 named storms in the Atlantic Basin, most of these while a lot of storms stayed out at sea 4 of them were landfalling system. Early in the season, tropical storm Colin formed over coastal South Carolina bringing heavy rain to Charleston.
Hurricane Fiona, while only a category 1 storm at the time of landfall, dropped copious amounts of rain on the island of Puerto Rico. The storm still managed to drop up to 3 feet of rain on the island which lead to many issues including flooding.
The big storm of the season was in late September when Hurricane Ian reached Category 5 status briefly off the coast of Florida. The storm slowly moved inland off the Ft. Myers coast bringing 10 to 15 feet of storm surge off the coast for hours along with 150 mph sustained winds at the time of landfall. Feet of rain fell on the Sunshine State causing flooding across the peninsula.
The storm would remerge over the Atlantic regaining hurricane status before making landfall in the Grand Strand of South Carolina. While some beach erosion occurred, the Palmetto State avoided widespread damage.
In November, hurricane Nicole would make landfall on the east coast of Florida, with its biggest impact being coastal erosion in the state.