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ABSTRACT
The 2002 Atlantic hurricane season is summarized. Although the season's total of 12 named storms was above normal, many of these were weak and short-lived. Eight of the named cyclones made landfall in the United States, including Lili, the first hurricane to hit the United States in nearly 3 yr.
1. Introduction
Although the 2002 Atlantic hurricane season featured 12 tropical storms, 2 more than the long-term average, there were only 4 hurricanes, 2 fewer than the long-term average. In an average season there are two "major" hurricanes [i.e., maximum 1-min average winds greater than 96 kt (1 kt = 0.5144 m s^sup -1^), corresponding to category 3 or higher on the Saffir-Simpson hurricane scale (Simpson 1974)], and in 2002 Isidore and Lili attained this status. An overall measure of seasonal activity is provided by the "accumulated cyclone energy" (ACE), which is defined as the sum of the squares of the wind speed of all named tropical cyclones every 6 h of the cyclone's existence. In 2002, because many of the named cyclones were weak and short-lived, the ACE was 65.1 × 10^sup 5^ kt^sup 2^, or 74% of the long-term median value of 87.5 × 10^sup 5^ kt^sup 2^. By this metric, the season was less active than normal.
Gustav, the first 2002 Atlantic hurricane, did not develop until 11 September, the latest date for the first hurricane since the beginning of the era of aerial reconnaissance in 1944. It is also of interest that the eight named tropical cyclones that formed during the month of September are the most on record for a calendar month. Eight named systems hit the United States-albeit several of these were weak tropical storms. Lili was the first hurricane to make a U.S. landfall since Irene in October of 1999. Table 1 lists statistics for the 2002 Atlantic tropical storms and hurricanes, and Fig. 1 is a map of their tracks. It can be seen that most of the cyclones originated at subtropical latitudes, north of 25°N. Of the 12 named systems, only 3, Dolly, Isidore, and Lili, originated from tropical waves. Two of the named systems, Gustav and KyIe, started out as subtropical cyclones.
Figure 2 show the sea surface temperature anomalies over most of...