Are we on 2005’s pace?
We all vividly recall the destruction the 2005 Atlantic hurricane season wrought.  You may remember we had to move to the Greek alphabet for names, once the list ran out after “Wilma”.  One other hallmark of the season was how l-o-n-g the season lasted.  After singing a verse of “Auld Lang Syne” ringing in the new year, we still had Tropical Storm Zeta to monitor. 

So, let’s compare the current season with 2005’s status, up through July 10. 
 

2010 vs. 2005 named storms through July 10

On July 10, 2005 Hurricane Dennis made landfall in the Florida Panhandle, the season’s fourth named storm and second hurricane.  Interestingly, earlier in its life cycle, Dennis was the strongest July Atlantic Basin hurricane on record.  Sound familiar?

So far in 2010, Hurricane Alex has been our only named storm.  T.D. 2 gave it the good college try, but wasn’t able to organize sufficiently prior to its South Padre Island, TX landfall.

That means 2010 is 3 named storms and 1 hurricane behind 2005’s pace through July 10.
How meaningful is that, relative to the rest of the season?   

Next:  What this means for the rest of the season  

– Weather.com – by Jonathan Erdman, Editorial Meteorologist