Ernesto grew into the first hurricane of the year on Sunday as it gained strength rapidly on a path that could threaten the Caribbean and the Gulf of Mexico a year after Hurricane Katrina devastated New Orleans.
Last year's Atlantic-Caribbean hurricane season rewrote the record books. And when meteorologists got a chance to thoroughly review the data, they discovered several storms were stronger than they initially thought. Here are some of the records set in 2005, according to post-season reviews by the U.S. National Hurricane Center.
MOST TROPICAL STORMS: There were 28 tropical storms in 2005. The old record was 21 storms, set in 1933. It was the first time forecasters turned to the Greek alphabet for storm names after using up their annual list of 21 names.
MOST HURRICANES: Fifteen tropical storms strengthened into hurricanes, with top sustained winds of at least 74 mph (119 kph). The old record was 12, set in 1969.
MOST CATEGORY 5 HURRICANES: Four hurricanes -- Emily, Katrina, Rita and Wilma -- reached the top rank on the five-step Saffir-Simpson scale of hurricane intensity, with sustained winds over 155 mph (249 kph). National Hurricane Center records show only two years, 1960 and 1961, with more than one Category 5 storm.
MOST POWERFUL STORM: The lower the barometric pressure in its center, the stronger the storm and Hurricane Wilma's briefly dropped to 882 millibars, the lowest ever recorded in the Atlantic-Caribbean basin. The previous most intense storm was Hurricane Gilbert in 1988, which had a minimum pressure of 888 millibars at its peak.
COSTLIEST HURRICANE: Hurricane Katrina, which hit Louisiana, Mississippi and Alabama in late August, caused more than US$80 billion of damage, making it the costliest hurricane on record and the costliest natural disaster ever to strike the United States. The previous most costly hurricane was Andrew, which caused US$26.5 billion in losses when it hit southeast Florida and Louisiana in 1992, or US$43.7 billion adjusted for inflation.
Source: U.S. National Hurricane Center:
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