2021 hurricane season draws to a close

SHREVEPORT, La. (KSLA) - We have reached the end of November, and that means that the 2021 hurricane season is officially coming to an end. As we close the book on the season, it’s time to look back and put what was another very active season into the proper perspective.

The season kicked off early this year with Ana becoming a tropical storm in May, marking the seventh consecutive year we have seen tropical development before the official start of hurricane season on June 1st. Elsa became our first hurricane of the season in July, and Grace became the first major hurricane of the season in August. Grace was also the first landfalling hurricane in 2021 when it made two separate landfalls in Mexico.

Of course the 2021 Hurricane Season will be most remembered, much like in 2020, for a major hurricane to make landfall in Louisiana. Hurricane Ida roared ashore on August 29th packing winds of 150 MPH causing incredible damage and knocking out power to most if not all of Southeast Louisiana. The remnants of the storm then headed north causing historic flooding to parts of the Mid-Atlantic. The ultimate cost of the storm is expected to be over 30 billion dollars, making it one of the costliest storms on record. The storm also was blamed for the tragic loss of 115 lives.

While Ida was devastating, the storm marked the high water mark of the hurricane season. While we did see several more storms, including two more major hurricanes, most of these storms focused their tropical energy out in the Atlantic Basin and well away from land. Also, unlike in 2020 we saw much less late season activity as Subtropical Storm Wanda was the only storm to form after October 1st in the Atlantic. This stands in stark contrast to 2020 where we saw six named storms, five hurricanes, and four major hurricanes develop after October 1st.

So as we sum up the 2021 Hurricane Season while it was very active by historical standards, we did see a significant dip in the number and intensity of the tropical systems compared to last year. We saw twenty one named storms, seven hurricanes, and four major hurricanes. So while we did have to deal with deadly tropical weather in 2021 we are finally able to close the book on the season.

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