Source: U.S. Hurricane Strikes by Decade at NOAA's National Hurricane Center (NHC) (Thru 2005)

Wilma set the record for low air pressure (measured in millibars [mb] or inches of mercury) in the eye, with a reading of (882 mb/26.05 in), another measure of storm strength.

Record damages were over $128 billion USD. See Summary at Wikipedia.

Hurricane Season:
The Official hurricane season is June 1 through November 30, but there have been hurricanes in May, December and January. There have been 6 hurricanes on record in December from 1851 to 2005. Tropical Storm Zeta lasted until January 6, 2006. Hurricane Able in 1951 and Alma in 1970 formed in the Caribbean in the middle of May.
See: Some hurricanes don't stick to the season at USA Today.

Hurricane List - Those with high death tolls or damage ($$)

Name	Mon.	Date	Location	Deaths	Cat (1)	winds (MPH)	Costs *	Comments
Newfoundland	Sept.	1775	South of Newfoundland	4 K
Caribbean		1780	Barbados, Martinique, St. Eustatius	22 K
Hurricane San Ciriaco	Aug..	1899	Puerto Rico	3 K
Galveston	Sept.	1900	Galveston	6-12 K	4	140		Worst American natural disaster of the 1900's. Story at NOAA
San Felipe - Okeechobee	Sept.	1928	Florida, Puerto Rico, Guadaloupe	4 K	4
Dominican Republic	Sept.	1930	Santo Domingo	8 K
Central America	June.	1934	El Salvador, Honduras	3 K
Florida Keys		1935		408	5
Great New England	Sept.	1938	Long Island, NY, CT, RI	700	3	121 (gusts up to 186)	$306 M
Great Atlantic Hurricane	Sept.	1944	Long Island, NY, CT, RI	46	3	134 (gusts up to 150)	$100 M	Five ships, including a U. S. Navy destroyer, sank due to the storm causing 344 deaths.
Donna	Sept.	1960	Puerto Rico, FL, NC, Long Island		5	364	$3.3 B
Carla	Sept.	1961	Texas		4
Flora	Sept. -Oct	1963	Haiti	8 K
Betsy	Sept.	1965	Florida, Louisiana	75	3	160	$6-8 B
Camille	Aug.	1969	Cuba, Mississippi, Louisiana, Alabama, Virginia, and West Virginia	256	5	199	$3.8 B
Doria	Aug.	1971	NC, Mid-Atlantic, NE		TS	65	$147 M
Agnes	June	1972	Florida, Georgia, NE	130	1		$8 B
Fifi	Sept.	1974	Honduras	8-10 K	2
Gloria	Sept.	1985	Long Island, CT	8	3	150 (110 at landfall)	$900 M	Storm of the Century
Gilbert	Sept.	1988	Puerto Rico, Yucatan Peninsula,Texas and Oklahoma	318	5	185	$5 B
Hugo	Sept.	1989	NE. Caribbean, Carolinas		4	162	$11 B
Andrew	Aug.	1992	Bermuda, Bahamas, Florida	26	5	155	$26 B
	23 dead in S. Florida and 3 in the Bahamas. The most expensive natural disaster in U.S. history until Katrin in 2005.
Iniki	Sept.	1992	Hawaii				$2.3 B
Opal	Oct.	1995	Florida		3		$3.5 B
Fran		1996	NC	?	3	$3.2 B
Name	Mon.	Date	Location	Deaths	Cat (1)	winds (MPH)	Costs *	Comments
Mitch	Oct.	1998	Honduras, Nicaragua	11 K	5	178	$5 B
Georges	Aug.	1998	Caribbean, Fla. Keys, and Gulf Coast	600	4		$5 B
Floyd	Sept.	1999	Carolinas, New Jersey	60	3		$4.5 B
	13 in. of rain fell in Somerville during a two day period. The Raritan River at Bound Brook, NJ crested at 42 ft. a total of 14 ft. above flood stage. See CNN Article and Image
Keith	Sept.	2000	Belize, Nicaragua, Honduras, and Mexico	24	4
Allison		2001	N Texas	?	TS	$5 B
Isabel	Sept.	2003	Carolinas, Virginia	31	4		$2 B
Name	Mon.	Date	Location	Deaths	Cat (1)	winds (MPH)	Costs *	Comments
Charlie	Aug.	2004	southwest coast of Florida	22	4	145	$15 B
Frances	Sept.	2004	southwest coast of Florida	16	4	135	$8.9 B
Ivan	Sept.	2004	Caribbean, Florida Keys, LA, AL, NJ, PA.	113	5	160	$14B
	Caribbean countries included: Grenada, Cayman Islands, Jamaica, Cuba, Towns in Warren Co. NJ were floded as the Delaware river overflowed in the NW part of the state.
Jeanne	Sept.	2004	Hati	1,700+	3		$6.9 B
Name	Mon.	Date	Location	Deaths	Cat (1)	winds (MPH)	Costs *	Comments
Katrina	Aug.	2005	New Orleans, Miss., Ala.	1,200+	5	175	$80-200 B	top
	It dropped to category 4 with 145 MPH winds when it hit land. Electricity was lost for 1.5 - 2 million homes and businesses. See the Katrina page for more.
Rita	Sep.	2005	Texas	100+	5	165	$10 B
	3rd most powerful storm (low barometric pressure near the eye of the storm was 897 millibars) on record while in the Gulf but droped to cagegory 3 when it hit landfall between Sabine Pass, Texas, and Johnson's Bayou, Louisiana. Wilma (see below) became the most powerful storm dropping Rita to 4th. 24 people were killed in a bus fire while evacuating before the storm hit.
Stan	Oct.	2005	Guatemala, El Salvador	100	1		$1-2 B	top
	2,000+ deaths occurred in the Mayan village of Panabaj in Guatemala which was completely destroyed by a mudslide caused by non-tropical rains in Stan's vicinity. Story.
Wilma	Oct.	2005	Cuba, Yucatan Peninsula, Florida	40	5	175	$24 B
	40 Deaths - 12 - Hati,1 - Jamaica, 6 - Mexico, 21 - Florida. As of October 17, 2005 Wilma became the 21st named storm of the season tying the record set in 1933 and exhausting the list of storm names. On Oct. 18th Wilma became the 12th hurricane of the season tying the record set in 1969. On Oct. 19th Wilma became the most powerful storm on record (low barometric pressure near the eye of the storm was 882 millibars).
Beta	Oct.	2005	Nicaragua and Honduras	0		105
	The 13th hurricane of the season breaking the all-time record set in 1969. There were also 23 named storms in 2005 (more named storms than at any point since record-keeping began in 1851.) The old record of 21 was set in 1933.

(1) Category Note: Most storms loose intensity whey they hit landfall. Most ratings are based on their maximum strength.
Intensity Scale:

          Type        Wind Speed
Small craft advisory: 25-38 MPH
        Gale warning: 39-54
       Storm warning: 55-72
Tropical Storms
 Tropical Depression: < 39 MPH
      Tropical Storm: 39-73 MPH (storm surge < 4 ft.) 
           Hurricane: > 73 MPH (See categories below)

Saffir-Simpson Hurricane Scale

Category	Damage	Winds	Barometric pressure (in)	Storm Surge
1	minimal	74-95	29-29.5	4-5 feet
2	moderate	96-110	28.5-28.9	6-8 feet
3	extensive	111-130	27.9-28.4	9-12 feet
4	extreme	131-155	27.2-27.8	13-18 feet
5	catastrophic	>155	<27.17	>18 feet

Only two Category 5 storms - the 1935 Key West Labor Day Storm, and Camile in 1969 which devastated Louisiana and Mississippi - have made landfall in the United States.
Other recent storms which reached category 5, but lost intensity before they hit land are: Mitch - 1999, Ivan - 2004, Katrina, Rita and Wilma - 2005.

Storm strength is also measured by the low air pressure (measured in millibars [mb] or inches of mercury) in the eye. A lower number indicates a stronger storm. The strongest storms on record are:

• 1. Wilma in 2005 (882 mb/26.05 in) - Cuba, northern Honduras, Yucatan Peninsula
• 2. Gilbert in 1988 (888 mb/26.23 in), - Jamaica and the Yucatan Peninsula.
• 3. Labor Day of 1935 (892 mb/26.35 in), Florida Keys.
• 4. Rita in 2005 (897 mb/26.49 in), LA, TX.
• 5. Allen in 1980, (899 mb/26.55 in)
• 6. Katrina in 2005 (902 mb/26.64 in), - Mississippi, Lousiana.
• 7. Camille in 1969 (905 mb) - Mississippi, Louisiana, Alabama, Virginia, W Virginia
  
• 7. Mitch 1998 (905 mb)
• 9. Ivan 2004 (910 mb)
• 10. Janet 1955 (914 mb)

Another measurement is Accumulated Cyclone Energy (ACE) Ranking.
The ACE is calculated by summing the squares of the estimated sustained velocity of every active tropical storm (wind speed 35 knots (kt) or higher), at six hourly intervals. For use as an index a unit of 10⁴ kt² is assumed.

ACE Storm
74  San Ciriaco 1899
70  Ivan 2004
68  Four 1926
65  Donna 1960
47  Frances 2004
39  Wilma 2005
38  Ike 2008
32  Emily 2005
25  Rita  2005
20  Katrina 2005

Counties: Florida,

See:
Accumulated Cyclone Energy (ACE) at wikipedia.org
Atlantic Ocean Tropical Cyclones 2004, 2005 at the National Oceanic & Atmospheric Administration's (NOAA) National Climatic Data Center.
Wikipedia: 2004, 2005, 2006

• Typical hurricanes are about 300 miles wide although they can vary considerably in size.
• The eye at a hurricane's center is a relatively calm, clear area approximately 20-40 miles across.
• The eyewall surrounding the eye is composed of dense clouds that contain the highest winds in the storm.
• The storm's outer rainbands (often with hurricane or tropical storm-force winds) are made up of dense bands of
• thunderstorms ranging from a few miles to tens of miles wide and 50 to 300 miles long.
• Hurricane-force winds can extend outward to about 25 miles in a small hurricane and to more than 150 miles for a large
• one. Tropical storm-force winds can stretch out as far as 300 miles from the center of a large hurricane.
• Frequently, the right side of a hurricane is the most dangerous in terms of storm surge, winds, and tornadoes.
• A hurricane's speed and path depend on complex ocean and atmospheric interactions, including the presence or absence
• of other weather patterns. This complexity of the flow makes it very difficult to predict the speed and direction of a hurricane.
• Do not focus on the eye or the track-hurricanes are immense systems that can move in complex patterns that are difficult
• to predict. Be prepared for changes in size, intensity, speed, and direction.
• A typical hurricane brings at least 6 to 12 inches of rainfall to the area it crosses.

Hurricane Cycles:
According to hurricane expert Dr. William Gray at Colorado State University, we should see an increase in storm activity over the next 20 years. it should resemble the period that began in the late 1920s and lasted through the 1940s. The increase is due to higher salinity content in the Atlantic Ocean, which alters its currents and increases average ocean temperatures, fueling more storms. Gray emphasizes that this is a cyclical trend and has nothing to do with global warming. (Drought Cycles and Hurricane Cycles; CBS Hot Air Watch)

According to Kevin Trenberth at the National Center for Atmospheric Research in Boulder, Colo., the importance of natural influences in driving hurricane cycles is "way overblown by some hurricane guys,". Rather, changes in hurricane incidence "in recent times are much more likely to be related to global warming," he said.
Source: SF Chronicle October 3, 2005