NBC 6’s Angie Lassman has a look at how the season went when it came to the number of storms.
A busy 2021 Atlantic Hurricane Season that saw 21 named storms and seven hurricanes officially ended Tuesday.
Of those seven hurricanes, four were major, making 2021 another above-average year for storms, even after the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration increased its averages this year.
NOAA increased to 14 named storms and seven hurricanes, after the previous averages had been 12 named storms and six hurricanes. The average for major hurricanes stayed at three.
While June 1 marks the official start of the season, the first named storm once again came early, when Tropical Storm Ana formed about 10 days early, in May. The final storm of the season, Wanda, came in October.
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The most destructive storm of 2021 was category 4 Hurricane Ida, which came ashore near Port Fourchon, Louisiana, on August 29. When Ida made landfall, maximum sustained winds were estimated around 150 mph.
Ida was the second-most-intense hurricane to strike Louisiana, after Hurricane Katrina in 2005.
Just a small number of storms made landfall in Florida in 2021. The first was Elsa, which became an 85 mph hurricane at its peak but made landfall in the Florida Panhandle as a weaker 65 mph tropical storm on July 8.
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Fred made landfall in the Panhandle on Aug. 16 as a 65 mph tropical storm, and a weak Mindy also landed in the Panhandle as a 45 mph tropical storm on Sept. 8.
According to NOAA, 2021 was the third-most active Atlantic Hurricane Season since records began in 1851. It follows 2020, the most active ever with 30 named storms and 13 hurricanes, and 2005, when there were 28 named storms.
