When it began, forecasters at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration predicted a near-normal season of anywhere between 9 and 15 named storms.
The final number turned out to be 19, with most systems - including the season's only major hurricane, Michael - to spin out in the ocean and pose little threat to land.Isaac in late August and Sandy in late October were the notable exceptions.
The National Hurricane center's Dennis Feltgen says a visitor from the Pacific never showed up.
That active pattern shifted west with the jet stream late in the season, allowing Sandy to brush by Florida, and follow its destructive course to the northeast--a path Feltgen says forecasters have never seen in more than 150 years of tracking storms.