status as it raced through the cold waters of the North Atlantic.

It marked what is expected to be the end of the deadly 1998 hurricane season, which officially wrapped up on Monday.

"There's nothing else out there. The season is over,'' Richard Pasch, a hurricane specialist at the National Hurricane Center in Miami told The Associated Press. "The rest of the tropics are quiet.'' Nicole was the tenth hurricane of the 1998 Atlantic Ocean season and it gave the four-year period since 1995 a record number 33 hurricanes.

This pipped the old record of 32 which was established between 1948 and 1951 and then again between 1949 and 1952.

When the storm formed, Mr. Pasch noted: "It's never been seen before. We were at the point where we tied the record. But now, we've broken it with Nicole.'' The Atlantic hurricane season began on June 1 and produced 14 named storms, 10 of which became hurricanes.

It will be remembered as the deadliest hurricane season in more than 200 years.

The overall death toll will top 12,000 with most of the deaths and damage coming in two storms -- Georges and Mitch.

Nicole was yesterday about 300 miles northwest of the Azores and was heading north at about 35 miles per hour.

Record year The 1998 hurricane season by the numbers: 33: Number of hurricanes in a four-year span, the most ever.

10: Number of hurricanes this year.

12,000: Expected number of deaths from the 1998 hurricane season.

14: Number of named storms in 1998.