Hurricane Dorian tops list as most searched news story of 2019

In a year that saw Notre Dame burn, President Trump's impeachment, multiple mass shootings, earthquakes and much more — Hurricane Dorian was the most searched news story of the year.

Hurricane Dorian lasted from late August to early September this year and broke several records. Dorian battered the Bahamas and is regarded as the worst natural disaster to impact the region, according to the National Weather Service. The storm killed more than 60 people in the Bahamas and left several billion dollars' worth of damage, USA Today reported.

"It was the strongest hurricane on record (185 mph winds) outside of the tropics in the Atlantic basin," hurricane expert Phil Klotzbach, a meteorologist at Colorado State University, told USA Today.

The storm made it all the way to a Category 5 intensity. While the Bahamas saw the worst of the storm, Puerto Rico, North Carolina and South Carolina were also affected.

The Atlantic hurricane season this year was unusually active. An average season has 12 named storms, but this year there were 18, six of which were hurricanes, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.

"This year marks the fourth consecutive above-normal Atlantic hurricane season," NOAA said in a statement in November. "The only other period on record that produced four consecutive above-normal seasons was 1998-2001."

Coming in as the No. 2 most searched story is another devastating disaster: the Notre Dame Cathedral.

The historic Paris cathedral, which failed to host Christmas services this week for the first time in more than 200 years, was devastated by a massive blaze in April. The 850-year-old church has been left so fragile that there is a 50 percent chance it can't be saved, according to NBC News.

Other notable news events from the year that made the list include the Women's World Cup and the Area 51 raid (that never happened).

See the full list below: