Hurricane season comes to an end. Rock Hill untouched.

The costliest hurricane season in history ended Thursday. The Rock Hill area escaped with two close calls from the series of storms that slammed other parts of the United States.

The National Hurricane Center says the 17 named storms this year in the Atlantic-Caribbean basin were the most since 2012, and tied with 1936 for the fifth-most on record. Those records date back to 1851.

Several of the storms were extremely powerful, and left $368.6 billion worth of damage in the United States and Caribbean.

The storms’ impact even stretched to the United Kingdom and Europe.

The worst hurricanes were Harvey, Irma and Maria, each of which reached Category-5 strength and made landfall on U.S. territory. Two of those – Harvey and Irma – threatened the Rock Hill area and the rest of the Carolinas.

Harvey, which made landfall in Texas and caused devastating flood damage near Houston, finally began moving northward after stalling in the Lone Star State for nearly a week. Heavy rain and a few tornadoes were reported in the Rock Hill-Charlotte area on Aug. 31 and Sept. 1, but the worst damage was west of the Carolinas.

Irma arrived about 10 days later, ripping across the Florida Keys after destroying about 95 percent of the structures on the Caribbean island of Barbuda.

Once again, forecasters initially predicted that Irma’s remnants would sweep across the Upstate, causing officials to close schools Sept. 11 across York and nearby counties. But the storm tracked westward, affecting Georgia and the extreme western part of South Carolina.

Some notable impacts of the 2017 hurricane season:

▪ Early start – Tropical Storm Arlene formed April 16 east of Bermuda. It was the earliest start of the season since 2003.

▪ Hurricane Harvey – It made landfall with 130 mph winds in late August near Port O’Connor, Texas, but Harvey’s rainfall caused the most damage. More than 60 inches fell near Houston, damaging or destroying tens of thousands of homes. The storm left 91 dead, mostly in the United States.

▪ Hurricane Irma – After roaring across Barbuda, Antigua and Saint Martin with winds reaching 185 mph, Irma made landfall in both the Florida Keys and the state’s Gulf Coast. It left 134 dead – 90 of those in the United States.

▪ Hurricane Maria – Another Category-5 storm, Maria hit Puerto Rico with top winds of 155 mph, leaving 3.4 million people without power. Much of the island remains without power more than two months later. The death toll was 103, with 55 of those in Puerto Rico.

▪ Hurricane Ophelia – This storm swept into southwest Ireland, killing four people and causing millions of dollars of damage. After losing its tropical characteristics, Ophelia’s winds caused massive wildfires in Portugal and Spain.

This story was originally published November 30, 2017 at 11:54 AM with the headline "Hurricane season comes to an end. Rock Hill untouched.."