Hurricane season 2008, unlike 2006 and 2007, was a shift back to the years of numerous damaging and deadly U.S. and Caribbean storms and hurricanes; so far 883 direct deaths and 99 indirect deaths have been documented.

Sixteen named storms formed, 8 became hurricanes of which 5 became major hurricanes. These numbers are very close to the 1995 to 2008 average of 15, 8 and 4, respectively rounded to the nearest whole number.

Similar to the busy 2004 hurricane season there were numerous tropical cyclone strikes on the U.S. coastline.

It was fortunate for the US that both of the strongest hurricanes of the season (Gustav and Ike, both CAT 4's) struck other land areas and weakened before striking the US as weaker hurricanes, but unfortunately in the process Ike greatly expanded in size.

The 2008 hurricane season was an all time record breaker; 5 of the 6 months of hurricane season had a major hurricane. The old record (2005) was a least one major hurricane in 4 months of hurricane season.

In 2008 Bertha became a major in July, Gustav a major in August, Ike a major in September, Omar a major in October and finally Paloma shattered the Atlantic Basin record when it became a major hurricane in November.

Hurricane Bertha became the longest --lived named storm on record in July in the Atlantic Basin (17 days). Bertha also formed farther east than any other on record so early in the season (east of 25W as a storm and 50W as a hurricane).

Image of Hurricane Bertha in the west-central Atlantic.

However prior to the satellite era few observations were available in this area to "see" any tropical storms; there have probably been others tropical storms like Bertha that are just not documented.

A series of 7 named storms starting with Cristobal and ending with Ike struck the U.S. coastline, this extended series of named storms all striking the U.S. with no non-strikers between is a record for the U.S.

Ike was by far the most costly hurricane for the U.S. in 2008 and will likely go into the record books in the top 5 costliest hurricanes in U.S. history, possibly in the top three.

Hurricane Ike as it emerges into the southeastern Gulf of Mexico after dealing a destructive blow on the western end of Cuba.

Although Ike struck near Galveston Texas as only a category 2 hurricane the enormous size of Ike's hurricane winds and its gigantic area of tropical storm winds brought huge waves and very high surge to the coast, both more representative of what would be expected from an average size CAT 4/5 hurricane, except that those extreme affects covered a much larger coastal and inland area than that observed from an average sized hurricane so that far more areas felt impacts from Ike.

A wild-looking Ike as it menaces the Gulf Coast just prior to landfall. Image courtesy of WeatherTap

Waves, surge and winds ransacked the coast from east-central Louisiana to near Freeport, Texas. Impacts on Galveston, southeast Houston, and the Bolivar Peninsula all the way to Lake Charles were extreme and the resulting wave, surge and wind damage caused oil drilling disruptions and gas refinery disruptions both resulting in an extended period of gas shortages to area as far away as north Georgia.

The combination of surge and additional water rise from battering high waves destroyed homes in west Galveston, flooding homes and businesses in north Galveston, flooding many homes and businesses around Galveston Bay, devastated many homes on the Bolivar Peninsula, and flooding residences, businesses and destroying infrastructure to areas to southeast of Lake Charles. In many wave and surge areas, homes vanished beneath the pounding surf.

The incredible breadth of Ike's surge. AP Photo/The Times-Picayune, Michael DeMocker: Plaquemines Parish, Saturday, Sept. 13, 2008

Wave heights were estimated to be near 40-50 feet and water rise, based on high water marks, is estimated to be 15-20 feet near the Bolivar Peninsula; portions of southeast Galveston Bay may have seen water briefly and very locally exceed 20 feet.

A large area of coastline reported 10 feet of water rise, and coastal water level stations measured heights as high as 12 feet, heights exceeded 8 feet at the mouth of the Mississippi River. Tide gauges failed or terminated transmission of data prior to measuring maximum values.

Hundreds of thousands of people were left without power in the Greater Houston Galveston area and across areas to the south and east of Houston. Some lost power for many weeks and some still do not have power or any hint of a home left along the coast.

Ike was a most classic example of how damaging a very large hurricane can be despite the fact that its maximum winds at the coast were less than 111 mph.

Sadly, even though hundreds of thousands evacuated, many did not and the result was that an unnecessary number of people died in the raging waves and high water that were forced onshore by Ike. Hundreds were rescued at the last hours before Ike's landfall or after Ike moved inland as many were left stranded by destroyed or impassible roads.

A year with a hurricane Ike comes along only once in 20 years or less and this hurricane alone would have made 2008 a season to remember.

But 6 other storms and hurricanes also struck the U.S. coastline, thus making this one of the most destructive in U.S. history, obviously mostly because the U.S. has built up a huge and continuous population of hurricane vulnerable structures along its coasts.