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The 2006 Atlantic hurricane season was a fairly inactive Atlantic hurricane season compared to the 2005 season. The season officially started on June 1, 2006, and officially ended on November 30, 2006, dates which by convention delimit the period of each year when the majority of tropical cyclones form in the Atlantic basin. One system, Tropical Storm Zeta from the 2005 season, continued through early January, only the second time on record that had happened. Tropical Storm Alberto was responsible for two indirect deaths when it made landfall in Florida. Hurricane Ernesto caused heavy rainfall in Haiti, and directly killed at least seven in Haiti and the United States. Four more hurricanes formed after Ernesto, including the strongest storms of the season, Hurricanes Helene and Gordon. No tropical cyclones formed during October, for the first time since the 1994 season. While forecasts predicted that the 2006 season would be very active, a rapidly forming El Niño event in 2006, the presence of the Saharan Air Layer over the tropical Atlantic, and the steady presence of a robust secondary high pressure area to the Azores high centered around Bermuda contributed to a slow season. (more...)