The NHC has just completed their "Best Track" reanalysis of the 2005 Atlantic hurricane season. This allows the forecasters and hurricane specialists to look at the storms in hindsight and evaluate with an objective eye the track and intensity. This often changes the numbers a bit, but they more accurately reflect what happened, which is not always the case in the hurried operational timeframe.
You can find the individual storm summaries at: http://www.nhc.noaa.gov/2005atlan.shtml
So, we ended up with 27 Tropical Storms, 15 Hurricanes, and 7 Major Hurricanes. Amazingly, 4 of those major hurricanes were Category 5s. These huge numbers, combined with the cumulative longevity of them, produced a season that was 276% of an "average" season (this is the NTC or Net Tropical Cyclone activity).
Longevity:
Storm with most time spent at 35kts+: Ophelia (10.75 days)
Storm with most time spent at 65kts+: Wilma (7.50 days)
Storm with most time spent at 100kts+: Wilma (4.75 days)
Contributions to season's NTC (out of 100%):
1st: Wilma (12.9%)
2nd: Emily (12.2%)
3rd: Rita (10.0%)
4th: Dennis (9.0%)
5th: Katrina (8.7%)
Highest Intensity (pressure and wind):
1st: Wilma (882mb and 160kts)
2nd: Rita (895mb 155kts)
3rd: Katrina (902mb 150kts)
4th: Emily (929mb and 140kts)
5th: Dennis (930mb and 130kts)
Deadliest:
1st: Katrina (1336)
2nd: Stan (80)
3rd: Dennis (42)
4th: Alpha (26)
5th: Wilma (22)
Costliest:
1st: Katrina ($75 bil)
2nd: Wilma ($12.2 bil)
3rd: Rita ($10.0 bil)
4th: Dennis ($2.2 bil)
5th: Cindy ($0.3 bil)
Also, CSU's April forecast for the 2006 season was just issued today and is available at: http://hurricane.atmos.colostate.edu/Forecasts/
Please visit my tropical Atlantic headquarters.
