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Here's the latest from EarthNow . . .

This display shows the tracks taken by all named storms during the 2012 Atlantic hurricane season.  
The season officially begins on June 1st and ends on November 30th. 
2012 has seen above-normal activity with 19 named storms so far. 10 of these have developed into hurricanes. 

Atlantic Tropical Depressions originate in Western Africa and travel westward, steered by trade winds. The track a depression takes determines how it develops. Warm tropical water provides energy for a depression to grow into a Tropical Storm, and sometimes Hurricane. Moving out of the tropics over cooler water will cause a depression to lose energy and dissipate. 

In late August, Hurricane Isaac intensified to Hurricane force over the warm Gulf of Mexico. As it moved over Louisiana, Isaac reached maximum winds of 80mph and made the Mississippi River flow backward for 24 hours, a rare event that last happened in 2005. Isaac caused $2B in damages, 41 deaths, and postponed the 2012 Republican National Convention.
In late October, Hurricane Sandy became the largest Atlantic hurricane with the lowest pressure ever recorded north of North Carolina. Its high winds spanned over 1,000 miles. Sandy rapidly intensified over the warm Caribbean Sea and tracked northward along the East Coast of the United States, affecting 24 states and causing destructive storm surge from New Jersey to southern New England. Sandy was blamed for more than $50B in damages and at least 170 deaths before it weakened after making landfall near Atlantic City, NJ.