The 2018 Atlantic hurricane season is over, and though it was slightly more active than usual, it didn’t have a huge impact on Baltimore.
That didn’t stop the year from becoming the region’s wettest on record.
There were 15 named storms and eight hurricanes in the Atlantic basin, a few more than the long-term average on both counts.
According to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, there were four storms active at one time (Florence, Helene, Isaac and Joyce) for the first time since 2008. You can see them at about the 5 ½-minute mark in a time lapse video of the hurricane season that NOAA posted on YouTube.
The video shows that Maryland had a few brushes of tropical weather, from Hurricanes Florence and Michael.
More impressive were the rainstorms that weren’t associated with any tropical storm.
After the 2:40 mark, you can see the onslaught of moisture from the Caribbean and Gulf of Mexico that brought record July rainfall in a matter of only a couple of weeks.
At about 5:45, the remnants of Florence pass through the region. Rainy September weather is visible from around the 6:00 mark to 6:20. And then moisture associated with Michael reaches the region around 7:00.
Then, rain clouds repeatedly cover the region from about 8:15 until the end of the video, depicting record November precipitation.