Weather Blog: End of 2023 hurricane season wrap

AUGUSTA, Ga. (WRDW/WAGT) - While the 2023 hurricane season was overall active, we only had one hurricane make landfall in the United States.

After three tropical storms, we had our first hurricane on July 14th. Hurricane Don formed in the middle of the Atlantic as a subtropical storm before moving northeast and strengthening into a hurricane.

Moving into late August tropical activity in the Atlantic started to ramp up dramatically. Over the course of 48 hours, starting August 20th, four named storms developed and strengthened in the Atlantic Ocean or the Gulf of Mexico.

Hurricane Idalia formed and was the only Hurricane to make landfall in the US. Portions of the CSRA saw minimal impact from Idalia, receiving less than an inch of rainfall while other counties closer to the east coast saw up to 8 inches in spots. Tree branches and power lines were also knocked down during Idalia’s quick move across the states of Florida, Georgia, and South Carolina.

News 12 had team coverage during Idalia which you can watch here.

Moving on to September, we had seven named storms in the Atlantic starting on the first of the month and lasting until the thirtieth. Hurricane Lee reached category five strength and had a life span of 11 days. Margot and Nigel were the two other hurricanes that occurred during September.

Ophelia, Philippe, Rina, Sean, and Tammy all formed during the last two months of hurricane season. While they all reached tropical storm strength we did not see any direct impacts to the United States.