Best news about Atlantic hurricane season? It’s finally over.

The 2017 hurricane season in the Atlantic ends Thursday, and it’s been one of the stormiest on record.

The National Hurricane Center reports that the combined strength and duration of tropical storms and hurricanes in 2017 was the fifth-most active on record, behind 1893, 1926, 1933 and 2005. The Atlantic basin includes the North Atlantic, the Caribbean and the Gulf of Mexico.

October alone was 40 percent more active than normal. Three named storms formed, with two becoming hurricanes. One of those was Ophelia, which by becoming the 10th straight storm of the season matched a record set in 1893.

For the full season that began June 1, 17 named storms formed. (Twelve is a normal year.) The season included six major hurricanes: Harvey and Irma in August; Jose, Lee and Maria in September and Ophelia in October. None made landfall in the Carolinas.

Category 5 Irma churned up maximum winds of 185 mph, making it the strongest storm ever recorded in the Atlantic Ocean. Irma’s projected track had the storm headed far inland toward Charlotte before veering to the west. Irma’s remains still whipped up 83 mph gusts on Mount Mitchell.

Category 4 Harvey, the first major hurricane to hit the U.S. mainland since 2004, set a new U.S. record for rainfall (60.5 inches near Nederland, Texas), the Miami Herald reported. Irma hammered Florida and Puerto Rico with fierce winds that made it the strongest hurricane ever recorded outside the Caribbean or Gulf of Mexico. Then Maria pounded Puerto Rico, further crippling it.

The Atlantic storms killed 438 people and left more than $200 billion in damage, CBSMiami reported.

AccuWeather says a decrease in wind shear, a change in wind speed or direction with altitude, and the presence of above-normal sea surface temperatures contributed to the busy season. Warm water acts as a fuel for developing storms by adding moisture to the atmosphere.

The hurricane season began with a transition from a neutral El Niño, or warming of Pacific waters, to a weak La Niña, or cooling of waters, according to AccuWeather. That weakened the vertical wind shear that tends to limit development of tropical storms in the Atlantic.

This story was originally published November 30, 2017 at 10:36 AM with the headline "Best news about Atlantic hurricane season? It’s finally over.."