The 1998 Atlantic hurricane season was an active Atlantic hurricane season that produced fourteen tropical cyclones and tropical storms, ten hurricanes, and three major hurricanes. It officially started on June 1 and ended on November 30, dates which conventionally delimit the period during which most tropical cyclones form in the Atlantic Ocean. The first tropical cyclone, Tropical Storm Alex, developed on July 27, and the season's final storm, Hurricane Nicole, dissipated on December 1. The most intense hurricane, Mitch, is tied with Hurricane Dean for the seventh most intense Atlantic hurricane ever recorded as well as the second deadliest Atlantic hurricane in recorded history. Additionally, the system dropped tremendous amounts of rainfall in Guatemala, becoming the wettest tropical cyclone at that location on record. The season was the first to feature a Category 5 hurricane on the Saffir–Simpson Hurricane Wind Scale since Hurricane Andrew in the 1992 season.
Several storms made landfall or directly affected land. Hurricane Bonnie made landfall in southeastern North Carolina as a Category 2 hurricane in late August killing five people and causing about $1 billion (1998 USD) in damage. Hurricane Earl made landfall in Florida as a Category 1 hurricane causing $79 million in damage and killing three people. The two deadliest and destructive hurricanes of the season, Hurricane Georges and Mitch, caused $5.9 billion in damage and $6.2 billion in damage, respectively. Hurricane Georges was an intense Category 4 hurricane that moved through many of the Caribbean Islands causing significant damage before making landfall near Biloxi, Mississippi at Category 3 intensity. Hurricane Mitch was a very powerful and destructive late-season hurricane that affected much of Central America before making landfall in Florida as a tropical storm. The significant amount of rainfall that Mitch produced across Central America caused significant damage and killed at least 11,000 people, making the system the second deadliest hurricane in recorded history, behind only the "Great Hurricane".
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“Obscurest night involv’d the sky,
Th’ Atlantic billows roar’d,
When such a destin’d wretch as I,
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Of friends, of hope, of all bereft,
His floating home for ever left.”
—William Cowper (1731–1800)
“Thought and beauty, like a hurricane or waves, should not know conventional, delimited forms.”
—Anton Pavlovich Chekhov (1860–1904)
“Methoughts a legion of foul fiends
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I trembling waked, and for a season after
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—William Shakespeare (1564–1616)