The Busiest (and Least Busy) Hurricane Seasons

1933 is generally regarded to be the busiest North Atlantic Hurricane Season on record. That year, twenty one tropical storms and hurricanes formed. There could have even been more, since that was in the days before satellite surveillance. I have always believed that we could never see another season like that one. We may be in the middle of it now. If we get to twenty two named storms, we will run out of names. In the Pacific, when one list is exhausted, they start using the first name from the next years list. The five busiest season since 1851 and the five least busiest seasons since 1946, when reconnaissance flights began...

Top five busiest seasons:
1993 21 Tropical Storms 10 Hurricanes
1887 19 Tropical Storms 11 Hurricanes
1995 19 Tropical Storms 11 Hurricanes
1969 18 Tropical Storms 12 Hurricanes
1936 16 Tropical Storms 7 Hurricanes
Five least busy seasons (ties sorted by ACE, a ranking of intensity and duration)
1983 4 Tropical Storms 3 Hurricanes
1962 5 Tropical Storms 3 Hurricanes
1946 6 Tropical Storms 3 Hurricanes
1977 6 Tropical Storms 5 Hurricanes
1982 6 Tropical Storms 2 Hurricanes

- Bill Murray