The Atlantic averages 11 named storms, six hurricanes and two major hurricanes (category 3 or higher). In 2005 those numbers were 26 named storms, 14 hurricanes, seven major hurricanes, and three category-5 hurricanes (156 mph winds or stronger). As National Hurricane Center personnel reanalyze the data, they speculate those numbers could be higher.
Tropical Storm Cindy briefly may have been a hurricane, and Hurricane Emily may have reached category 5 status. The 26 named storms breaks the record of 21 set in 1933, the 14 hurricanes surpasses the record 12 in 1969, and never have there been three category-5 storms in one season. Those three, - Katrina, Rita, and Wilma - all had top winds of 175 mph, and are the first, fourth, and sixth most intense hurricanes (measured by lowest surface pressure) in Atlantic basin history.
A few other records fell during the 2005 hurricane season. We are well aware of the damage Katrina left in Louisiana, Mississippi and Alabama. Its cost is estimated at more than $80 billion, the most in U.S. history. The fatalities, about 1,200, were not a record. That distinction belongs to the Galveston Hurricane of 1900, which was responsible for at least 10,000 fatalities (there was little if any warning it was coming). Katrina is, however, the deadliest hurricane in our country in almost 80 years.
Hurricane Vince had no effect on the United States, but after weakening to a tropical storm, Vince became the first named storm to make landfall in - Spain! Finally, 2005 was the first season to exhaust all the letters used in our alphabet, so Greek letters were utilized.
We have never made it past "T" (names were started in the 1950s), but this year we added seven more, the "V" and "W" storm, then, Alpha, Beta, Gamma, Delta and Epsilon.