Hurricane Mitch was the second-deadliest Atlantic hurricane on record. Mitch caused 11,374 fatalities in Central America in 1998, including approximately 7,000 in Honduras and 3,800 in Nicaragua due to cataclysmic flooding from the slow motion of the storm. It was the deadliest hurricane in Central American history, surpassing Hurricane Fifi–Orlene, which killed slightly fewer people in that area in 1974. Mitch was the deadliest Atlantic hurricane in the satellite era, and the second-deadliest on record in the Atlantic, only behind the Great Hurricane of 1780 which killed at least 22,000 people.
Damage in Tegucigalpa
Mudslide in San Juancito, Honduras
Flooding in Lake Managua after the hurricane
Casita volcano in western Nicaragua after deadly mudslide
An Atlantic hurricane is a type of tropical cyclone that forms in the Atlantic Ocean primarily between June and November. The terms "hurricane", "typhoon", and "cyclone" can be used interchangeably to describe this weather phenomenon. These storms are rotating, organized systems of clouds and thunderstorms that originate over tropical or subtropical waters and have closed low-level circulation, not to be confused with tornadoes. They form over low pressure systems. In the North Atlantic, central North Pacific, and eastern North Pacific, the term "hurricane" is mainly used, whereas "typhoon" is more commonly used for storms originating in the western North Pacific. The term "cyclone" is used in the South Pacific and Indian Ocean.
Tracks of North Atlantic tropical cyclones from 1851 to 2019
The subtropical ridge (in the Pacific) shows up as a large area of black (dryness) on this water vapor satellite image from September 2000
Hurricane Katrina was the costliest and one of the five deadliest hurricanes in the history of the United States.