After six months of near misses and close brushes with tropical cyclones, residents of Cayman and the wider region can rest easy knowing the 2021 Atlantic hurricane season ends today, 30 Nov.
This year the hurricane season, which began on 1 June, lived up to predictions for above-average activity with a total of 21 named storms and seven hurricanes, four of which developed into major hurricanes.
“There were two storms in the year of importance,” said Cayman Islands National Weather Service Director General John Tibbetts. “One storm was poorly organised, in the form of Tropical Storm Ida, which made it hard to predict. The other storm, which was much more serious, was Tropical Storm Grace.”
On 18 Aug., Grace lashed Grand Cayman with near-hurricane strength winds and rain. In its wake, Grace left downed electricity lines across Grand Cayman, plunging tens of thousands of residents into darkness, while uprooting hundreds of tons of vegetation.
“Grace a was a tropical storm at its nearest point of contact which was several miles offshore of Grand Cayman,” said Tibbetts. “However, it also produced sustained gusts of near-Category 2 hurricane-force winds.”
In 2021, for the seventh consecutive year, the Atlantic hurricane season got off to an early start as Tropical Storm Ana formed on Saturday, 22 May – 10 days before the official beginning.
Tropical Storm Elsa developed into a hurricane on 1 July, to become the first hurricane of 2021. Elsa maintained its Category 1 status, as it travelled through the eastern Caribbean, over Barbados, before veering north towards Florida.
Ida, which developed into a Category 1 hurricane on 27 Aug., strengthened into a Category 4 two days later as it made landfall over southern Louisiana. Hurricane Ida was the strongest recorded storm of the 2021 season.
“This year the season lived up to predictions; in fact it used up all the names [but] did not venture into the supplementary names,” said Tibbetts.
Unlike in 2020, which saw storm formation well into late November, this year’s hurricane season ended suddenly in the latter part of October.
“We were looking for signs of development but could not see any; the season ended rather abruptly,” said Tibbetts.
He added, “But what is certain is that for now we can breathe a sigh of relief and keep a sharp eye out for the Christmas breeze.”
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