Mother Nature's been angry this year, with record-setting hurricanes, wildfires, heat, drought, rain

From wildfires to torrential rains and a hurricane, this year's weather has pummeled the Treasure Coast.

"It seems like we are getting 100-year storms every year," said Glenn Henderson, director of the St. Luce County Mosquito Control District. "We need Mother Nature to calm down."

His agency still is repairing storm-damaged dikes around 4,300 acres of coastal impoundments that help control mosquito populations along the Indian River Lagoon.

Erosion has left beaches exposed and susceptible to damage during the winter, according to coastal engineers.

And there's no indication of a letup in the conditions that led to an unusual outbreak of wildfires at the start of this year.

The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's three-month climate outlook is for the dry season to be drier and warmer than normal through at least February.

If that pans out, it will prolong a record-setting weather year on the Treasure Coast that so far includes:

the fifth strongest hurricane season on record;

among the warmest average yearlong temperatures on record;

a wildfire season more active than the previous four;

a very dry start to the year that is ending among the wettest on record.

Hurricane season a doozy

The Treasure Coast and Florida have had an unusually active hurricane season rising out of warmer-than-normal temperatures in the Atlantic Ocean and the Gulf of Mexico, according to scientists at the National Hurricane Center in Miami.

It's not over yet: Hurricane season doesn't end until Nov. 30.

IRMA AFTERMATH: Billions of dollars in damages

So far, this year ranks fifth for the strongest hurricanes in one season since record keeping began, hurricane center experts said. It tracks behind 1893, 1926, 1933 and 2005.

This year included immensely powerful Hurricane Irma. When Irma occurred, it was the most intense Atlantic hurricane since Katrina in 2005.

Irma hit Florida twice as a Category 4 in the Keys and Marco Island on Sept. 10, and brought tropical force winds to the Treasure Coast. Before hitting Florida it was a Category 5 storm with maximum winds of 185 mph, hurricane experts said.

Irma's center had been predicted to go up Florida's east coast, but it shifted and went up Florida's west side. Still, Irma brought a nearly 100 mph wind gust recorded at the St. Lucie Nuclear Plant and dropped a lot of rain, flooding portions of the Treasure Coast, particularly St. Lucie County.

It brought an epic 13.08 inches of rain in one day to Fort Pierce. During a 72-hour period, St. Lucie County's rainfall totaled 22 inches. Vero Beach received 8.11 inches — the highest one-day rainfall ever recorded during the entire month of September in the city, based on records dating to 1942. Stuart recorded 6.25 inches.

Ophelia on Oct. 11 was the 10th consecutive named storm in the Atlantic Ocean to reach hurricane strength in a season, tying the record set in 1878, 1886 and 1893. Although it never threatened the United States, Ophelia was the easternmost major hurricane on record to rise out of the the Atlantic Ocean, reaching a Category 2. It went toward Ireland and England.

Ophelia also was the sixth major storm of the year, giving 2017 the most major hurricanes in the Atlantic Ocean since 2005, National Hurricane Center spokesman Dennis Feltgen said.

The record-setting stopped with Ophelia. The next tropical storm, Philippe, did not become a hurricane. Tropical Storm Rina, the 17th named storm of the season, formed Nov. 8 but was no threat to the United States.

The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration compiles a report each year summing up the hurricane season. It is due after Nov. 30.

Why so many hurricanes?

Part of the upsurge in hurricanes is attributed to the absence of El Niño.

Until 2016, the number of hurricanes had dropped off in part because of a strong El Niño, according to meteorologists.

El Niño is a wide-ranging atmospheric weather condition rising out of warmer-than-normal ocean temperatures at the equator in the Pacific Ocean. It suppresses hurricane activity in the Atlantic Ocean.

El Niño waned before the start of the 2016 hurricane season. It was replaced by its opposite, La Niña, which cools down Pacific Ocean waters and enhances hurricane activity in the Atlantic.

La Niña also contributed to this year’s drier-than-normal dry season marked by numerous wildfires.

Droughts and wildfires

During the first quarter of the year, the Treasure Coast’s drought conditions were in the severe category, which hadn't occurred across much of this area since 2011, said Tim Elder, supervisor of the Okeechobee District of the Florida Forest Service.

The winter is normally the dry season, but this year's was exceptional.

MORE: Gusty winds to increase risk from wildfires

Wildfires repeatedly broke out in Indian River, St. Lucie and Martin counties. At the beginning of April, nine fires totaling 806 acres burned in Martin and St. Lucie counties. One of the hardest to control was a 224-acre lightning-caused blaze deep in the 32-square-mile Allapattah Flats Wildlife Management Area in Martin County.

The fire spread into dried out swamps in the management area.

In Indian River County, strong winds quickly turned a small trash fire into a fast-moving forest fire west of Fellsmere.

This year, the Treasure Coast has had more acres of wildfire than the prior four years combined, according to the Florida Forest Service.

Rainfall from January through April totaled about 5 to 8 inches for the Treasure Coast, ranking as the 10th-driest start to the year for Fort Pierce based on records dating to 1901, the longest on the Treasure Coast.

A late-season cold front in May helped bring an abrupt end to the fire season, Elder said.

"It rained for almost a week straight," he said, noting Vero Beach had flooding.

May ended up with the second-wettest start to the month on record.

Through the end of October, the Treasure Coast received 45 to 55 inches of rain, putting the entire region on track to have above average rainfall by year's end.

Breaking temperature records

According to the National Aeronautics and Space Administration, 16 of the 17 warmest years globally during the past 136 years have all occurred since 2001.

To date, 2017 has been the United States' third-warmest year, according to NOAA.

Florida is having its hottest year ever, according to NOAA's National Center for Environmental Education.

This year's average statewide temperature, including day and night, is 74.3 degrees, or 2.6 degrees above the average for the 20th century.

MORE: Heat sending people to hospitals

The Treasure Coast's average yearlong temperatures so far this year also are ranked among the warmest on record. Stuart's average of 77.8 degrees is its warmest ever. Fort Pierce's average of 75.8 degrees is its third-warmest, and Vero Beach's average of 76 degrees is its fourth-warmest.

This year's warmth isn't because of unrelenting days of excessive highs along the Treasure Coast, according to National Weather Service forecasters. The number of days of 95-plus temperatures have been low, compared with other years. And there have been a few cool fronts.

As National Weather Service meteorologist Derrick Weitlich sees it, temperatures have remained consistently warm month after month.

"There hasn't been much of a break in the heat,” he said.

For instance, on July 26, the heat index — a measure of heat and humidity — climbed to 107 during the early afternoon in both Vero Beach and Stuart. Some people were treated for exposure to high heat while working outdoors.

Contributing to the heat were overnight lows being higher than usual on a number of days, at times setting records, according to meteorologists. Night breezes were bringing in ocean-warmed air.

NOAA's monthly climate reports show that throughout 2017, both ocean and air temperatures have been above normal on the Treasure Coast.