As if 2020 wouldn’t have been challenging enough, the year featured several extreme weather patterns and shattered meteorological records.
From wildfires to hurricanes to blizzards, 2020 offered up the full range of extreme weather patterns.
Here’s a look back at the biggest weather stories of 2020 in the D.C. region and beyond.
The 2020 Atlantic Hurricane season broke the record for most activity in a single season. There were 30 named storms, 13 of which reached high enough wind speeds to become hurricanes.
Isaias
Hurricane Isaias was “only” a Category 1 strength storm when it made landfall in the United States near Ocean Isle Beach in North Carolina, but it managed to spawn nearly 40 tornadoes and left around 3 million homes without power from North Carolina to New England.
Maryland and Virginia got hit by 16 tornadoes between them, including several EF-2s. One EF-1 tornado managed to travel nearly 30 miles through Virginia’s Suffolk County and Pasquotank County.
North Carolina saw an EF-3 as a result of Isaias. A twister traveled 10 miles through Bertie County and brought winds between 136-165 miles per hour and severe damage, making it one of the most powerful tornadoes resulting from a tropical depression on record. North Carolina also saw the highest number of tornadoes spawned from the storm with 12.
Laura and Delta
In late August, Hurricane Laura battered the Gulf Coast, making landfall as a Category 4 storm. With winds up to 150 mph and a 17-foot storm surge, Laura was one of the most powerful storms to ever make landfall in the United States.
In mid-October, Delta, a Category 2 storm, made landfall in Louisiana after battering the Yucatan Peninsula in Mexico. The region was still picking itself up from the devastation of Laura, and Delta compounded problems further.
Honorable mention was Tropical Depression Paulette, which was dubbed a “zombie storm” after it seemingly broke up, only to build strength again and return to the land of the living for a little while.
2/4
Rain fell in sheets over the summer, bringing massive amounts of flooding to low lying areas and damaging roads and bridges.
Several storms brought heavy, localized rain that quickly overwhelmed runoffs and temporarily made creeks run like rivers.
On Sept. 10, a section of Route 50 in Prince George’s County, Maryland, was flooded after torrential rains battered the region which left several drivers stuck in their cars with waters rising. Rescue teams were sent out on inflatable rafts to scoop up stranded drivers and bring them back to safety.
In August, more torrential rains battered Maryland, causing Ellicott City to blare its flood warning tones. The city avoided facing a third 100-year flood, but roads and bridges in surrounding areas were either damaged or washed away entirely.
The western United States saw some of the most devastating wildfires in the nation’s history in 2020, and the drifting ash created hazy conditions that could be seen on the other side of the country.
Scorching temperatures and a lack of rainfall created prime conditions in the west for a devastating wildfire season.
In California, wildfires scorched roughly 4% of the state’s total acreage, making 2020 the largest wildfire season on record.
Over 30 people died in the record-setting wildfires, but many of the fires burned in unoccupied federal land, sparing the year from also claiming the title of deadliest wildfire season on record.
Several fires were still burning as the year ended.
In Colorado, the wildfire season dragged on longer than usual, extending well into the latter parts of October. The colder temperatures and snowfall that the state relies on to put a damper on fires arrived later than usual.
The 2020 season was the second largest in the state’s history.
In states like Colorado and California, there were days where everything was bathed in blood red light, making for some of the most haunting imagery of the year. Much of the country was impacted by the haze in the weeks surrounding some of the more intense fires.
As if to close the year off with a flourish, the conditions needed to generate a nor’easter in the northeastern United States built up quickly and dropped truly staggering amounts of snow in some states on Dec. 16.
Virginia, Maryland and D.C. also saw some snow, but aside from more northern parts of Maryland, it was gone from most areas less than six hours after it started coming down.
In Virginia, state police said that troopers responded to approximately 200 crashes and 125 disabled vehicles. A single-vehicle crash on Interstate 81 killed a North Carolina man.
The brunt of the storm was felt up north in states like Pennsylvania and New York, where some places saw more than 40 inches of snow come down. Further south in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, a new record was set for most snowfall in December that had been held since 1973. In total, the state’s capital saw 9.3 inches of snow on Dec. 16.
