8:00 AM | *A recap of 2022 and the news is generally good…Atlantic Basin and Northern Hemisphere tropical activity below-normal…US tornadoes below-normal…a quieter year in California for wildfires*
December 29, 2022
The Accumulated Cyclone Energy (ACE) is the best measure of overall tropical activity as it factors in both longevity and magnitude for individual systems. The ACE for the 2022 tropical season was below-normal across the Atlantic Basin (upper right box) and for the entire Northern Hemisphere (lower right box). Data courtesy Colorado State University, NOAA (climatological averages are shown in parentheses to the right of observed values for given location)
Overview
Despite the fact that the state of Florida suffered through direct impact by two hurricanes in just a six-week time period, the Atlantic Basin as a whole featured below-normal tropical activity in 2022 as measured by a metric known as the Accumulated Cyclone Energy (ACE). In addition, the entire Northern Hemisphere experienced below-normal tropical activity this year and - as was the case last year - the quieter-than-normal Pacific Ocean led the way to those favorable hemisphere-wide results. In terms of tornadoes, more good news in 2022 as it has been another below-normal year in the US and, once again, there were no EF-5’s observed (i.e., most powerful type of tornado). Finally, with respect to wildfires, it was a quieter year in California than the past few with some well-timed rainfall. The trend in the number of wildfires across the entire US continues to be downward for the past 15 years despite an uptick nationwide in 2022.
Colder-than-normal sea surface temperatures continue to dominate the scene in the equatorial part of the Pacific Ocean in much the same way as in the prior two years. These “La Nina” conditions likely played an important role in the below-normal tropical activity across parts of the Pacific Ocean which has a huge impact on the Northern Hemisphere as a whole. Map courtesy NOAA, tropicaltidbits.com (as of 27 Dec 2022)
Atlantic Basin and Northern Hemisphere tropical activity…below-normal
https://arcfieldweather.com/blog/2022/12/28/1000-am-good-news-in-2022atlantic-basin-and-northern-hemisphere-tropical-activity-below-normalus-tornadoes-below-normalnumber-of-us-wildfires-on-a-downward-trend-last-15-years
