TOMS RIVER, NJ – 2020 is a year New Jerseyans would like to forget. Aside from the COVID-19 pandemic and the deaths and tragedy surrounding that, locked-down residents of New Jersey had to weather through seven hurricanes that summer.
In a normal year, seven hurricanes would have been the news of the year, but during the pandemic, they hardly got noticed as people were more concerned with avoiding a deadly global pandemic.
Beyond the health crisis posed by COVID-19, New Jersey faced an unusually high frequency of hurricanes in 2020, challenging the state’s emergency response and infrastructure.
The series began on July 10, when Tropical Storm Fay made landfall northeast of Atlantic City, bringing 50 mph winds and leading to the drowning of four people due to rip currents. This was the first landfalling cyclone in New Jersey since Hurricane Sandy in 2012.
Less than a month later, on August 4, Tropical Storm Isaias moved up the east coast, bringing 75 mph wind gusts to Cape May and Berkeley Township. Governor Phil Murphy declared a state of emergency as 1.36 million residents were left without power. The storm also spawned two tornadoes in the state, and a 21-year-old man drowned off the coast of Cape May.
On August 29, remnants of Hurricane Laura contributed 4.92 inches of rain and wind gusts of 33 mph. Following closely were the remnants of Hurricane Sally on September 18–19, with rainfall of 0.74 inches and wind gusts of 35 mph. Tropical Storm Beta’s remnants on September 27–28 brought 0.51 inches of rain and wind gusts of 29 mph.
October continued the pattern with remnants of Hurricane Delta affecting New Jersey from October 11–12. Peak rainfall was recorded at 3.67 inches in West Creek, and a top wind gust of 42 mph was recorded in Sea Girt. Finally, from October 29–31, Post-Tropical Storm Zeta passed through, contributing a peak rainfall amount of 4.06 inches and a wind gust of 45 mph.