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2021 Brings On 21 Storms: A Recap of the Atlantic Hurricane Season
December 22, 2021 at 03:10 PM EST
By WeatherBug Meteorologists, John Benedict, Andrew Rosenthal and Alyssa Robinette
The past year’s hurricane season was once again one of the busiest on record, tipping the scales with 21 named storms – good for third place all-time, and was part of the busiest two-year period on record in the tropics. Seven named storms attained hurricane intensity with four of these being major hurricanes. Here’s a look back at some of this year’s most notable storms:
Tropical Storm Ana
Although the season didn’t “officially” begin until June 1, it got off to a quick start with Tropical Storm Ana developing in the central Atlantic Ocean in late May, the seventh consecutive year that a storm developed before June 1. Fortunately, Ana only flirted with Bermuda over the next day or two before dissipating.
Tropical Storms Claudette
The season began to pick up in earnest by mid-June with Tropical Storm Claudette. Claudette originated as a weak area of low pressure in the southern Gulf of Mexico. The storm took a bit of an unusual path, as it didn’t become organized enough to become a tropical storm until already onshore in Louisiana. After gaining tropical storm intensity, Tropical Storm Claudette would then cut across the Deep South and the Carolinas before moving off the North Carolina coast.
At its peak, Claudette was a weak tropical storm with maximum sustained winds of 45 mph, but this storm did turn deadly. Claudette caused a total of 14 fatalities, ten of which occurred in a 17-car pileup on Alabama’s Interstate 65. Rainfall totals reached as high as 15 inches in southern Mississippi, while three tornadoes were recorded – the strongest injuring 20 people in south-central Alabama.
Tropical Storm Danny
Less than a week after Claudette exited the Carolinas, a new disturbance formed not too far from where Claudette had pushed offshore. As this disturbance became more consolidated, thunderstorm activity increased near the center, and it was quickly identified as Tropical Storm Danny. Soon thereafter, Danny then made landfall in southern South Carolina on the evening of June 28. Tropical Storm Danny became the first storm to make landfall in South Carolina during the month of June since 1867. Its impacts were relatively minor, however, with 3 to 5 inches of rain falling between Savannah, Ga., and Charleston, S.C., and reports of rough seas causing beach rescues.
Hurricane Elsa
The busy start to the season continued as the next system formed soon thereafter near the Windward Islands on June 30. After strengthening into a tropical storm as it passed over Barbados on July 1, Elsa maintained its strength as the storm caused flooding, downed trees and did significant damage to the banana crop on Saint Lucia and Saint Vincent. A northwestward turn brought Elsa across Jamaica, Hispaniola and Cuba before veering into the Gulf of Mexico. Elsa strengthened as it moved north, paralleling the Florida Gulf Coast, also reaching hurricane status. That said, Elsa’s hurricane lifetime was short-lived as it weakened before making landfall as a strong tropical storm on July 8.
Impacts across Florida were limited with reports of downed trees and minor flooding, although Elsa also spawned a tornado that went through the suburbs of Jacksonville that damaged a few homes and businesses. Elsa maintained its strength as a strong tropical storm as it interacted with an approaching cold front, producing wind gusts of 50 to 70 mph across coastal New Jersey and Long Island. Elsa dropped between 5 to 10 inches of rain across portions of the Southeast, and 2 to 5 inches across the Mid-Atlantic and Northeast.
Tropical Storm Fred
The hurricane season went on a bit of a hiatus after Elsa, with little to no tropical activity for the rest of July and into early August. That streak was broken on August 11, as a low-pressure system just south of Puerto Rico quickly organized into Tropical Storm Fred. Fred’s early days consisted of fits and starts, as it struggling to maintain its intensity as a tropical storm as it passed directly over Hispaniola and then Cuba. Finally pulling away from Cuba, Fred was able to feed off of the warm Gulf of Mexico, strengthening to a strong tropical storm with 65 mph winds on August 16. Later on the 16th, Fred slammed ashore on the Florida Panhandle before slowly meandering across the Eastern U.S. through August 20.
Although just a tropical storm, Fred had quite an impact. In the Dominican Republic, about 500,000 people lost power, and portions of Cuba received nearly a foot of rain. Thirty-one tornadoes were reported as Fred and its remnants sliced across the Southeast and into the interior Northeast, with significant flooding from the Carolinas to Pennsylvania.
Hurricane Grace
Soon after Fred formed, the next system was already in development, eventually becoming Hurricane Grace. Grace formed from a tropical wave in the eastern Atlantic on the same day as Fred but took until August 14 to reach tropical storm intensity as it spun westward across the open Atlantic. Its first landfall was in Hispaniola on August 16 as a tropical storm, just days after Tropical Storm Fred and a M7.2 earthquake in southern Haiti.
Grace continued to slide westward, making near or over Jamaica and the Cayman Islands on August 17. After detaching from the Caribbean islands, Grace was quickly able to intensify into a hurricane before coming ashore in Mexico’s Yucatan Peninsula on August 18. That was far from the end of the story of Hurricane Grace, as it moved into the very warm Bay of Campeche, reaching hurricane and then major hurricane intensity on August 20. With winds of 125 mph, Grace slammed into Mexico’s mainland, causing widespread flooding and damage in Veracruz state. Fourteen people were killed.
Hurricane Henri
There was to be no letup in that busy week of tropical activity, as yet another storm was already plotting a course on the map. Unlike Fred or Grace, this system formed in the western Atlantic, near Bermuda. After drifting south- and westward across the western Atlantic, the developing depression reached tropical storm intensity, earning itself the name “Henri” on August 16. The remnant low of Tropical Storm Fred over the Appalachians and high pressure off the Eastern Seaboard worked together to steer Henri northward a few hundred miles off the Atlantic coast. As it tracked along the warm Gulf Stream, Henri was able to reach minimal hurricane intensity on August 21. Landfall occurred near the Connecticut-Rhode Island border as a tropical storm, the first to come ashore in the Ocean State in 20 years.
Henri’s impacts were quite significant. As it approached the Northeast coast as a hurricane, Hurricane Warnings were issued from New Jersey to Massachusetts, the first such warnings since Hurricane Sandy scoured the region in 2012. Heavy rain preceding the storm swamped New York City on August 21, bringing a single-hour record 2 inches of rain to Central Park and forcing the cancellation of a nationally televised concert. Nearly 14 inches of rain fell in Concordia, N.J., with 3 to 6 inches in Connecticut. Coming days after Fred, this led to significant flash flooding and mudslides. Closer to the storm’s landfall, nearly 70,000 people were left without power in Rhode Island, and three tornadoes tore across central Massachusetts.
Hurricane Ida
Soon after Henri, the Atlantic season dealt its next blow, producing its strongest landfalling hurricane of the season in Hurricane Ida. Hurricane Ida originally developed on August 26 just off Jamaica. It would move in a northwestward direction into an extremely favorable environment in the Gulf of Mexico, rapidly becoming a hurricane with a day, and a major hurricane by August 29. Ida reached its peak intensity as it made landfall near Port Fourchon, La., later on the 29th as a Category 4 storm with sustained winds of 150 mph. The highest rainfall amount in the Southeast occurred in Wilmer, Ala., with an amount of 11.24 inches. There was also a plethora of 5 to 10 inch-amounts across the region from Ida.
Ida wasn’t done though after making landfall in Louisiana. It would then make a sharp turn to the northeast, moving through the Tennessee Valley, Mid-Atlantic and just off the Northeast coast through September 2. While Ida would lose its tropical characteristics, it would combine with a cold front to transport a tremendous amount of moisture northward. The result was very heavy and significant flooding, especially across the New York City and Philadelphia metro regions, still reeling from Fred and Henri just a week or two earlier.
Newark, N.J., recorded 8.41 inches of rain, their most ever in a single day, shattering the old record by over 1.5 inches. Weather stations in New York City reported rain rates over 3 inches per hour. At one point, flood waters drenched the length of Interstate 676 several feet deep. The extreme rainfall also arrived with tornadoes in several states in the Mid-Atlantic, including Maryland and New Jersey.
Ida’s remnants would finally be absorbed by another developing low to the east on September 4, which would then dissipate completely by September 7. Ida is the sixth-costliest tropical cyclone on record, and is tied with Hurricane Sandy for the fourth-costliest Atlantic hurricane in the U.S. It is estimated to have caused at least $65.25 billion in damages. There was a total of 115 deaths associated with Ida.
Hurricane Larry
Even as Ida was steaming toward the Gulf Coast, Hurricane Larry formed as a depression off the coast of Africa on August 30. By September 2, Larry had reached hurricane intensity, before peaking as a major Category 3 storm in the central Atlantic. Thankfully for the U.S. Eastern Seaboard, Larry tracked quickly to the northwest and north, although it ultimately made landfall in Newfoundland on September 10, the first such storm to do so since 2010. Even after losing tropical characteristics, the remnant low pressure of Larry still managed to produce as much as 4 feet of snow, 100 mph gusts and blizzard conditions across parts of Greenland.
Hurricane Nicholas
There was to be no rest for the storm weary as the next hurricane to target the United States was already making waves. What would become Hurricane Nicholas originated in the southern Gulf of Mexico as a tropical storm on September 12. Although initially an unorganized, not well-defined storm, Nicholas underwent a period of rapid intensification, and consequently became a Category 1 hurricane by September 14. Just a few hours later, Nicholas would make landfall near Sargent Beach, Texas.
From there, the center of the storm would straddle land and water as it moved northeasterly along the western Gulf Coast. Due to the interaction with land, Nicholas would weaken to a tropical depression on September 15 as it slowly moved into southern Louisiana. It would lose its tropical characteristics the next day, before finally dissipating on September 18. However, its residual tropical moisture lingered over parts of the southeastern U.S. for several days. Despite reaching Category 1 hurricane status for a only short amount of time, Nicholas caused anywhere from $1.1 to $2.2 billion in damages. Luckily, there were no fatalities reported with this tropical system.
Hurricane Sam
The Atlantic season still had a few more tricks up its sleeve, with the season’s strongest storm yet to come. Hurricane Sam would reach the cusp on Category 5 intensity, but fortunately avoided landfall as a tropical system. Sam first developed as a tropical storm on September 23, quickly becoming a hurricane the next day. As it moved within 800 miles of the Lesser Antilles, Sam was able to feed off the warm open Atlantic, upgrading to a major hurricane on September 25, and then peaking on the afternoon of September 26 with sustained winds of 155 mph – just shy of the 156 mph needed to reach Category 5. Sam would then spin northward over the next several days, bringing high surf and swells to nearly the entire Atlantic basin as it tracked near the middle of the ocean. Ultimately, Sam’s demise as a tropical system came on October 5 as it approached Iceland, the only landmass the storm would ever contact.
Tropical Storm Wanda
The rest of the Atlantic season was filled with a parade of relatively weak tropical storms, culminating with Tropical Storm Wanda forming from a strong nor’easter on Halloween well off the Northeast coast. Wanda would harmlessly drift around the west-central Atlantic for a week before dissipating, finally drawing to a close the 2021 Atlantic tropical season.
This season was definitely above-average in terms of overall activity, the sixth consecutive year to meet this mark. Between Ana’s development in May and Wanda’s downfall in November, eight tropical storms or hurricanes made landfall in the United States. Damage estimates likely exceeded $70 billion, clocking in at #4 on record.
Image: Taken on August 29, this image shows Hurricane Ida as a category 4 storm nearing the southeast Louisiana coast from the International Space Station. (NASA)
Tropical Storm Ana
Although the season didn’t “officially” begin until June 1, it got off to a quick start with Tropical Storm Ana developing in the central Atlantic Ocean in late May, the seventh consecutive year that a storm developed before June 1. Fortunately, Ana only flirted with Bermuda over the next day or two before dissipating.
Tropical Storms Claudette
The season began to pick up in earnest by mid-June with Tropical Storm Claudette. Claudette originated as a weak area of low pressure in the southern Gulf of Mexico. The storm took a bit of an unusual path, as it didn’t become organized enough to become a tropical storm until already onshore in Louisiana. After gaining tropical storm intensity, Tropical Storm Claudette would then cut across the Deep South and the Carolinas before moving off the North Carolina coast.
At its peak, Claudette was a weak tropical storm with maximum sustained winds of 45 mph, but this storm did turn deadly. Claudette caused a total of 14 fatalities, ten of which occurred in a 17-car pileup on Alabama’s Interstate 65. Rainfall totals reached as high as 15 inches in southern Mississippi, while three tornadoes were recorded – the strongest injuring 20 people in south-central Alabama.
Tropical Storm Danny
Less than a week after Claudette exited the Carolinas, a new disturbance formed not too far from where Claudette had pushed offshore. As this disturbance became more consolidated, thunderstorm activity increased near the center, and it was quickly identified as Tropical Storm Danny. Soon thereafter, Danny then made landfall in southern South Carolina on the evening of June 28. Tropical Storm Danny became the first storm to make landfall in South Carolina during the month of June since 1867. Its impacts were relatively minor, however, with 3 to 5 inches of rain falling between Savannah, Ga., and Charleston, S.C., and reports of rough seas causing beach rescues.
Hurricane Elsa
The busy start to the season continued as the next system formed soon thereafter near the Windward Islands on June 30. After strengthening into a tropical storm as it passed over Barbados on July 1, Elsa maintained its strength as the storm caused flooding, downed trees and did significant damage to the banana crop on Saint Lucia and Saint Vincent. A northwestward turn brought Elsa across Jamaica, Hispaniola and Cuba before veering into the Gulf of Mexico. Elsa strengthened as it moved north, paralleling the Florida Gulf Coast, also reaching hurricane status. That said, Elsa’s hurricane lifetime was short-lived as it weakened before making landfall as a strong tropical storm on July 8.
Impacts across Florida were limited with reports of downed trees and minor flooding, although Elsa also spawned a tornado that went through the suburbs of Jacksonville that damaged a few homes and businesses. Elsa maintained its strength as a strong tropical storm as it interacted with an approaching cold front, producing wind gusts of 50 to 70 mph across coastal New Jersey and Long Island. Elsa dropped between 5 to 10 inches of rain across portions of the Southeast, and 2 to 5 inches across the Mid-Atlantic and Northeast.
Tropical Storm Fred
The hurricane season went on a bit of a hiatus after Elsa, with little to no tropical activity for the rest of July and into early August. That streak was broken on August 11, as a low-pressure system just south of Puerto Rico quickly organized into Tropical Storm Fred. Fred’s early days consisted of fits and starts, as it struggling to maintain its intensity as a tropical storm as it passed directly over Hispaniola and then Cuba. Finally pulling away from Cuba, Fred was able to feed off of the warm Gulf of Mexico, strengthening to a strong tropical storm with 65 mph winds on August 16. Later on the 16th, Fred slammed ashore on the Florida Panhandle before slowly meandering across the Eastern U.S. through August 20.
Although just a tropical storm, Fred had quite an impact. In the Dominican Republic, about 500,000 people lost power, and portions of Cuba received nearly a foot of rain. Thirty-one tornadoes were reported as Fred and its remnants sliced across the Southeast and into the interior Northeast, with significant flooding from the Carolinas to Pennsylvania.
Hurricane Grace
Soon after Fred formed, the next system was already in development, eventually becoming Hurricane Grace. Grace formed from a tropical wave in the eastern Atlantic on the same day as Fred but took until August 14 to reach tropical storm intensity as it spun westward across the open Atlantic. Its first landfall was in Hispaniola on August 16 as a tropical storm, just days after Tropical Storm Fred and a M7.2 earthquake in southern Haiti.
Grace continued to slide westward, making near or over Jamaica and the Cayman Islands on August 17. After detaching from the Caribbean islands, Grace was quickly able to intensify into a hurricane before coming ashore in Mexico’s Yucatan Peninsula on August 18. That was far from the end of the story of Hurricane Grace, as it moved into the very warm Bay of Campeche, reaching hurricane and then major hurricane intensity on August 20. With winds of 125 mph, Grace slammed into Mexico’s mainland, causing widespread flooding and damage in Veracruz state. Fourteen people were killed.
Hurricane Henri
There was to be no letup in that busy week of tropical activity, as yet another storm was already plotting a course on the map. Unlike Fred or Grace, this system formed in the western Atlantic, near Bermuda. After drifting south- and westward across the western Atlantic, the developing depression reached tropical storm intensity, earning itself the name “Henri” on August 16. The remnant low of Tropical Storm Fred over the Appalachians and high pressure off the Eastern Seaboard worked together to steer Henri northward a few hundred miles off the Atlantic coast. As it tracked along the warm Gulf Stream, Henri was able to reach minimal hurricane intensity on August 21. Landfall occurred near the Connecticut-Rhode Island border as a tropical storm, the first to come ashore in the Ocean State in 20 years.
Henri’s impacts were quite significant. As it approached the Northeast coast as a hurricane, Hurricane Warnings were issued from New Jersey to Massachusetts, the first such warnings since Hurricane Sandy scoured the region in 2012. Heavy rain preceding the storm swamped New York City on August 21, bringing a single-hour record 2 inches of rain to Central Park and forcing the cancellation of a nationally televised concert. Nearly 14 inches of rain fell in Concordia, N.J., with 3 to 6 inches in Connecticut. Coming days after Fred, this led to significant flash flooding and mudslides. Closer to the storm’s landfall, nearly 70,000 people were left without power in Rhode Island, and three tornadoes tore across central Massachusetts.
Hurricane Ida
Soon after Henri, the Atlantic season dealt its next blow, producing its strongest landfalling hurricane of the season in Hurricane Ida. Hurricane Ida originally developed on August 26 just off Jamaica. It would move in a northwestward direction into an extremely favorable environment in the Gulf of Mexico, rapidly becoming a hurricane with a day, and a major hurricane by August 29. Ida reached its peak intensity as it made landfall near Port Fourchon, La., later on the 29th as a Category 4 storm with sustained winds of 150 mph. The highest rainfall amount in the Southeast occurred in Wilmer, Ala., with an amount of 11.24 inches. There was also a plethora of 5 to 10 inch-amounts across the region from Ida.
Ida wasn’t done though after making landfall in Louisiana. It would then make a sharp turn to the northeast, moving through the Tennessee Valley, Mid-Atlantic and just off the Northeast coast through September 2. While Ida would lose its tropical characteristics, it would combine with a cold front to transport a tremendous amount of moisture northward. The result was very heavy and significant flooding, especially across the New York City and Philadelphia metro regions, still reeling from Fred and Henri just a week or two earlier.
Newark, N.J., recorded 8.41 inches of rain, their most ever in a single day, shattering the old record by over 1.5 inches. Weather stations in New York City reported rain rates over 3 inches per hour. At one point, flood waters drenched the length of Interstate 676 several feet deep. The extreme rainfall also arrived with tornadoes in several states in the Mid-Atlantic, including Maryland and New Jersey.
Ida’s remnants would finally be absorbed by another developing low to the east on September 4, which would then dissipate completely by September 7. Ida is the sixth-costliest tropical cyclone on record, and is tied with Hurricane Sandy for the fourth-costliest Atlantic hurricane in the U.S. It is estimated to have caused at least $65.25 billion in damages. There was a total of 115 deaths associated with Ida.
Hurricane Larry
Even as Ida was steaming toward the Gulf Coast, Hurricane Larry formed as a depression off the coast of Africa on August 30. By September 2, Larry had reached hurricane intensity, before peaking as a major Category 3 storm in the central Atlantic. Thankfully for the U.S. Eastern Seaboard, Larry tracked quickly to the northwest and north, although it ultimately made landfall in Newfoundland on September 10, the first such storm to do so since 2010. Even after losing tropical characteristics, the remnant low pressure of Larry still managed to produce as much as 4 feet of snow, 100 mph gusts and blizzard conditions across parts of Greenland.
Hurricane Nicholas
There was to be no rest for the storm weary as the next hurricane to target the United States was already making waves. What would become Hurricane Nicholas originated in the southern Gulf of Mexico as a tropical storm on September 12. Although initially an unorganized, not well-defined storm, Nicholas underwent a period of rapid intensification, and consequently became a Category 1 hurricane by September 14. Just a few hours later, Nicholas would make landfall near Sargent Beach, Texas.
From there, the center of the storm would straddle land and water as it moved northeasterly along the western Gulf Coast. Due to the interaction with land, Nicholas would weaken to a tropical depression on September 15 as it slowly moved into southern Louisiana. It would lose its tropical characteristics the next day, before finally dissipating on September 18. However, its residual tropical moisture lingered over parts of the southeastern U.S. for several days. Despite reaching Category 1 hurricane status for a only short amount of time, Nicholas caused anywhere from $1.1 to $2.2 billion in damages. Luckily, there were no fatalities reported with this tropical system.
Hurricane Sam
The Atlantic season still had a few more tricks up its sleeve, with the season’s strongest storm yet to come. Hurricane Sam would reach the cusp on Category 5 intensity, but fortunately avoided landfall as a tropical system. Sam first developed as a tropical storm on September 23, quickly becoming a hurricane the next day. As it moved within 800 miles of the Lesser Antilles, Sam was able to feed off the warm open Atlantic, upgrading to a major hurricane on September 25, and then peaking on the afternoon of September 26 with sustained winds of 155 mph – just shy of the 156 mph needed to reach Category 5. Sam would then spin northward over the next several days, bringing high surf and swells to nearly the entire Atlantic basin as it tracked near the middle of the ocean. Ultimately, Sam’s demise as a tropical system came on October 5 as it approached Iceland, the only landmass the storm would ever contact.
Tropical Storm Wanda
The rest of the Atlantic season was filled with a parade of relatively weak tropical storms, culminating with Tropical Storm Wanda forming from a strong nor’easter on Halloween well off the Northeast coast. Wanda would harmlessly drift around the west-central Atlantic for a week before dissipating, finally drawing to a close the 2021 Atlantic tropical season.
This season was definitely above-average in terms of overall activity, the sixth consecutive year to meet this mark. Between Ana’s development in May and Wanda’s downfall in November, eight tropical storms or hurricanes made landfall in the United States. Damage estimates likely exceeded $70 billion, clocking in at #4 on record.
Image: Taken on August 29, this image shows Hurricane Ida as a category 4 storm nearing the southeast Louisiana coast from the International Space Station. (NASA)