Hurricane Ida 2021.
The hurricane season officially ends today but according to State Climatologist Barry Keim we could still see a disturbance in the month of December, but it’s highly unlikely. Keim said the 2021 hurricane season was the third busiest on record with 21 named storms, seven were hurricanes, and four of which were major.
“It’s behind only last year’s 30 named storms and we have 28 names storms back in 2005. So those were the only two years that were busier than this past season,” said Keim.
Keim said the record book goes back 170 years to 1851.
Of the four major hurricanes this year, Ida was one that ravaged parts of southeast Louisiana. Keim said while Ida proved the levee system in the New Orleans metropolitan area is sound, she devastated other towns.
“Which made landfall down around Port Fourchon, trashed the towns of Grand Isle and Port Fourchon along the coast and places like Lafitte, Laplace, Braveway all had major flooding that took place,” said Keim.
Keim said things really began to ramp up in 1995 and we’ve experienced above-normal seasons ever since. Last year Louisiana was impacted by five storms, Tropical Storm Cristobal, and Hurricanes Laura, Marco, Delta, and Zeta. This year three storms have left their mark with Tropical Storm Claudette, and Hurricanes Ida and Nicholas.
“We’ve had eight named storms that have made impacts right here in Louisiana, that’s got to be unprecedented,” said Keim.
Keim said this is the first time we’ve had two back-to-back seasons with 21 or more named storms.
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