Tropical cyclones in 2017

During 2017 tropical cyclones formed within seven different tropical cyclone basins, located within various parts of the Atlantic, Pacific and Indian Oceans. During the year, a total of 146 tropical cyclones had formed. 88 tropical cyclones had been named by either a Regional Specialized Meteorological Center or a Tropical Cyclone Warning Center. The strongest and deadliest tropical cyclone was Hurricane Maria with a minimum barometric pressure of 908 mbar and killing 3,000 people in Puerto Rico and Dominica. The costliest tropical cyclone of the year was Hurricane Harvey in the Atlantic, which struck Houston metropolitan area in August causing US$125 billion in damage, tying with Hurricane Katrina as the costliest tropical cyclone worldwide.
The most active basin in the year was the Western Pacific, which documented 27 named systems. However, the season had slightly below-average activity, and was the first season since 1977 to feature zero Category 5-equivalent super typhoons forming in the basin. The Eastern Pacific, despite amounting to 18 named systems, which constitutes above-average activity, was also significantly less active than the previous three Pacific hurricane seasons. However, the North Atlantic featured 17 named storms, and was the costliest tropical cyclone season on record. It also had the fifth-most named storms since reliable records began in 1851 – tied with 1936 – and the most major hurricanes since 2005. Activity across the southern hemisphere's three basins—South-West Indian, Australian, and South Pacific—was spread evenly, with each region recording seven named storms apiece, and with the most powerful cyclone, Cyclone Ernie, explosively intensifying to a Category 5 tropical cyclone. Two other Category 5 tropical cyclones formed in the North Atlantic, totalling to three Category 5 tropical cyclones that formed during the year. The accumulated cyclone energy index for the 2017, as calculated by Colorado State University was 621.1 units, which was below the 1981-2010 mean of 770.2 units.

Global atmospheric and hydrological conditions

For the majority of the year, the tropics were dominated by neutral El Niño–Southern Oscillation conditions, before La Niña conditions set in later in the year. As the year opened, sea surface temperatures anomalies across the central and east-central equatorial Pacific were cooler than average, while the impacts of La Niña lingered within the atmospheric circulation, following an abrupt end to the 2016 La Niña episode. Over the next few months, these anomalies warmed and nearly reached the thresholds needed for an El Niño event to be declared, however, they subsequently cooled throughout the rest of the year and the 2017–18 La Niña event was declared to be underway.
Scientists pointed out that the increase of emissions contributes to warmer ocean waters and more moist air for rain. Because of sea level rise it is assumed that the storm surge of Hurricane Irma and other storms will cause greater flooding to vulnerable areas. Data collected by NASA showed that ocean surface temperatures in the path of Irma were above 30 °C, capable of sustaining a Category 5 hurricane.
Prior to affecting the U.S. mainland, Miami's mayor Tomás Regalado noted on Hurricane Irma, "This is the time to talk about climate change. This is the time that the president and the EPA and whoever makes decisions needs to talk about climate change." A day later the head of the EPA, Scott Pruitt said, "..to discuss the cause and effect of these storms, there's the… place to do that, it's not now." Following Irma's landfall, Donald Trump was asked about the connection between hurricanes and climate change, and stated that "We’ve had bigger storms than this." Richard Branson who was directly impacted by hurricane Irma noted, "..hurricanes are the start of things to come. Look, climate change is real. Ninety-nine per cent of scientists know it's real. The whole world knows it's real except for maybe one person in the White House."
United Nations secretary general António Guterres citing the devastation from hurricanes noted in September, "The catastrophic Atlantic hurricane season has been made worse by climate change. Cutting carbon emissions must clearly be part of our response to the disaster. The rise in the surface temperature of the ocean has had an impact on weather patterns and we must do everything possible to bring it down."
The Associated Press looked at the yearly average accumulated cyclone energy, which accounts for wind speed and storm duration to assess hurricane power of the past 30 years and found it to be 41 percent higher than the previous 30 years. They asked several experts about their opinion, James Kossin from NOAA "There's no question that the storms are stronger than they were 30 years ago." Climate scientist Stefan Rahmstorf of the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research, "The only caveat being that the increase might be exaggerated somewhat because of undercounting early storms." Meteorologist Philip Klotzbach noted, "What's happening with hurricanes — the frequency, the duration, and the energy — is probably a combination of factors caused by both nature and man, a mish-mosh of everything." Kerry Emanuel who studies hurricanes, told the BBC, "The warming of the climate has increased the underlying probabilities of very heavy rain events like happened in Harvey and very high category hurricanes like Irma. It is just not sensible to say either storm was caused by climate change, but the underlying probabilities are going up."

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from:20/12/2016 till:01/01/2017 text:Dec. '16
from:01/01/2017 till:01/02/2017 text:January
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from:01/03/2017 till:01/04/2017 text:March
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from:01/05/2017 till:01/06/2017 text:May
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from:01/12/2017 till:01/01/2018 text:December
from:01/01/2018 till:10/01/2018 text:Jan. '18
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text:"This table is based on the"
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text:"tropical cyclone basins"