The 2010 hurricane season was, to put it bluntly, unusually active.  There were 19 named storms (tied for third most overall) and a staggering 12 hurricanes (second most all time).  However, of the many storms that formed, only one made landfall with the United States, and that was Hurricane Igor.  Others scraped the US coast, but didn’t crash into the North American continent.  How did the US dodge so many bullets?  Well, according to weather researchers, the US dodged a hurricane bullet because it had its shields up.

Not literal shields, mind you.  The US was shielded by its weather patterns.  Specifically, two pressure systems protected the United States by turning aside bad weather.  One of these was the massive high pressure system that brought weirdly hot weather this summer.  The other was a trough of low pressure just off the East Coast, which deflected several other storms off to the northeast, away from landfall.

“Had the trough set up just a few hundred miles farther west during the summer, the East U.S. Coast would have been hit by several hurricanes,” said Chris Hebert of Houston, Texas, company ImpactWeather.  “And if the southern ridge position had been a few hundred miles farther east, then the northwest Gulf Coast would have been at risk for several landfalls.”

Tags: severe weather, US protected by hurricane shield, hurricane season, 2010 hurricane season, hurricanes, extreme weather conditions, storms, United States shielded from hurricanes by pressure systems, weird weather, unusual weather patterns, Chris Hebert, ImpactWeather, Houston, Texas

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