2021 Atlantic Hurricane Season 3rd Most-Active on Record

Jeff Dunsavage, Senior Research Analyst, Triple-I (11/30/2021)

The 2021 Atlantic hurricane season, which ends today, was the third most active on record for named storms, according to Triple-I non-resident scholar Phil Klotzbach, PhD, at Colorado State University.

The season’s 21 named storms included seven hurricanes — with four reaching major hurricane (Category 3, 4, or 5) intensity — and trailed only 2020, with 30 named storms, and 2005, with 28. The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) says an average hurricane season has 14 named storms, seven hurricanes, and three major hurricanes.

“As the nation’s financial first responders, insurers helped their customers recover economically from the impacts of another very active hurricane season in 2021,” said Triple-I CEO Sean Kevelighan. “The widespread damage the United States experienced across many regions highlighted the importance of being financially protected from catastrophic losses and that includes having adequate levels of property insurance and flood coverage. In fact, we not only saw historic levels of flooding in coastal areas this year but throughout inland communities, as well.” 

Hurricane Ida was the most damaging storm this season, knocking out power to more than one million Louisiana residents and causing extensive water outages, as well. Ida made landfall at Port Fourchon, La., on Aug. 29 as a Category 4 hurricane with maximum sustained winds of 150 miles per hour. Several catastrophe modelers project Ida to be among the top five costliest tropical storms on record in terms of insured losses, in part because Ida caused widespread wind and flood-generated damage in the mid-Atlantic and Northeast regions.

The other hurricane to strike the U.S. this year was Nicholas, which made landfall near Sargent Beach, Texas, on Sept. 14 as a Category 1 storm.