The 1997 Atlantic hurricane season is the most recent Atlantic hurricane season to feature no tropical cyclones in August. The season officially began on June 1, 1997, and lasted until November 30, 1997. These dates conventionally delimit the period of each year when most tropical cyclones form in the Atlantic basin.
The 1997 season was inactive, with only seven named storms forming, with an additional tropical depression and an unnumbered subtropical storm. It was the first time since the 1961 season that there were no active tropical cyclones in the Atlantic basin during the entire month of August. A strong El Niño is credited with reducing the number of storms in the Atlantic, while increasing the number of storms in the Eastern and Western Pacific basin to 19 and 29 storms, respectively. As is common in El Niño years, tropical cyclogenesis was suppressed in the tropical latitudes, with only two becoming tropical storms south of 25°N.
The most notable storm was Hurricane Danny, which killed nine people and caused an estimated $100 million (1997 USD, $145 million 2012 USD) in damage when it made landfall near the mouth of the Mississippi River and the Mobile Bay area. Hurricane Erika, the strongest storm of the season, passed within 85 mi (137 km) of the Lesser Antilles, far enough away to prevent hurricane conditions from reaching land, although minor damage still occurred. In addition, Hurricane Bill, Tropical Storm Claudette, and the precursor of Tropical Storm Grace also caused minor affects on land.
Read more about 1997 Atlantic Hurricane Season: Storms, Storm Names, Season Effects
Famous quotes containing the words atlantic, hurricane and/or season:
“In clear weather the laziest may look across the Bay as far as Plymouth at a glance, or over the Atlantic as far as human vision reaches, merely raising his eyelids; or if he is too lazy to look after all, he can hardly help hearing the ceaseless dash and roar of the breakers. The restless ocean may at any moment cast up a whale or a wrecked vessel at your feet. All the reporters in the world, the most rapid stenographers, could not report the news it brings.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)
“Staid middle age loves the hurricane passions of opera.”
—Mason Cooley (b. 1927)
“Compare ... the cinema with theatre. Both are dramatic arts. Theatre brings actors before a public and every night during the season they re-enact the same drama. Deep in the nature of theatre is a sense of ritual. The cinema, by contrast, transports its audience individually, singly, out of the theatre towards the unknown.”
—John Berger (b. 1926)