The 2010 Hurricane season actually tied the 1995 and 1887 seasons for the third most active seasons on record. While many storms did not affect the US, or any land in general, the season was still well above average - as predicted.

We finished the 2010 Hurricane season with 19 named storms, 12 of which became hurricanes (second highest on record), and 5 of those storms were major hurricanes, or Category 3 and higher. An average season produces 11 named storms, 6 hurricanes and 2 major hurricanes.

Luckily, patterns throughout the US mainland prevent many storms from impacting the coastline. Unfortunately, that left many areas in the eastern US, like the Shenandoah Valley, rather dry for most of the summer. One area that saw too much tropical activity was the Texas/Mexico border, where several storms made landfall and delivered inches, even feet of rain.

As expected, La Nina provided an above average season for the Atlantic and a below average season for the North Pacific. In fact, it was the most inactive season ever recorded in the North Pacific with only 7 named storms, 3 hurricanes and 2 major hurricanes.

NOAA, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration is calling this season a "gentle giant" as it was relatively calm for most land masses and many storms stayed out to sea.

Now it's time to keep our eyes on the winter storm season with meteorological winter beginning December 1.