Busy 2021 hurricane season comes to a close
With a collective sigh of relief from electric companies and their power restoration teams, the spin cycle of the 2021 Atlantic hurricane season has come to an end.
After 21 named storms, from Ana to Wanda, the storm season proved to be a doozy for scientists recording the year as the third most active Atlantic hurricane season in history, whipping off of the tailwinds of the most active season just last year; and 2005 as the second most active.
However, the 2021 season proved to be notable in more than one way.
The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration consider an average season to have about 14 named storms, seven hurricanes, and three major hurricanes, or storms with 111 mph maximum sustained winds and greater.
The NOAA predicted 2021 to be an above average season prior to its start, but adjusted its outlook after Hurricane Elsa cut its way through Florida and released a mid-season forecast predicting a total of 15-21 named storms by Nov. 30. That estimate was met by Oct. 31 with the formation of Tropical Storm Wanda, which fortunately never made landfall and meandered in the mid-Atlantic until Nov. 8.
After Wanda’s finale, the National Hurricane Center’s tropics outlook went dark and the season’s final tally ended with 21 named storms, seven hurricanes and four major storms — fitting the NOAA’s prediction almost to a T.
Scientists saw the proof in the pudding midway into the season by taking sea-surface temperatures into account.
“A mix of competing oceanic and atmospheric conditions generally favor above-average activity for the remainder of the Atlantic hurricane season, including the potential return of La Niña in the months ahead,” said Matthew Rosencrans, a NOAA scientist, during the midseason prediction.
Just after that prediction, the hurricane season did ramp up between Aug. 18 and Sept. 2 with four hurricanes developing: Grace, Henri, Ida and Larry.
That was a big deal for scientists as it was the first time on record that more than three hurricanes formed between those two dates, according to Colorado State University meteorologist Philip Klotzbach. Another first showed up not long after a busy September when all activity paused after Hurricane Sam’s reign when no tropical activity was recorded at all between Oct. 3 and Oct. 30 — the first time since 2006, Klotzbach said.
Before the calm, however, came a lot of storms.
Of those, only one U.S. hurricane landfall involved a major storm: Hurricane Ida, which slammed into Port Fourchon, Louisiana on Aug. 29 with Category 4 maximum sustained winds of 150 mph, according to National Hurricane Center reports.
Hurricanes never care much for timing, but Ida’s landfall in New Orleans was 16 years to the day after Hurricane Katrina flooded the city. Investments into the city’s levees paid off as Ida turned out to be the third most destructive storm of the season bringing down 22,000 power poles, the Associated Press reported, and leaving more than 1 million people in the dark, according to Poweroutage.us.
There’s still no official account on how many people died in the storm, but Ida’s northeastern path to New York, released floodwaters along the way and killed dozens. The NHC will likely release a report of its findings sometime in the first half of 2022.
Aside from Ida, the U.S. made it through hurricane season relatively unscathed. Florida did face a scare with Hurricane Elsa in early July, but the storm degenerated before making landfall in Taylor County. Elsa is responsible for five deaths, including the death of one man in Florida after a tree fell on him.
The storm season would exhaust its named list three months later and for the second year in a row. There was no need for a backup plan, but should another storm form before the end of 2021, the World Meteorological Organization would use an auxiliary list starting with Adria. The 2020 season was the last time the WMO flowed into a second alphabet, and used Greek letters to designate storms, but banned its use of the Greek alphabet earlier this year due to the confusion around similar sounding letters: Eta, Theta and Iota.
The WMO has also hinted at another possible change in the upcoming season with an adjustment to the start of hurricane season. The 2021 season was the fifth season in a row to have a storm form before the June 1 start of the season. This is partly due to better monitoring and policy changes that now name subtropical storms.
This year, the NHC began its tropical weather outlooks two weeks ahead of season, but the WMO could change the expected start of the Atlantic hurricane season to May 15 to better fit forecast tracks — the same day as the official start to the Pacific hurricane season.
But for now, 2022 is still slated to begin in six months on June 1.
