2001 Atlantic hurricane season

A busy season that stayed mostly at sea

The archive tracks 17 tropical cyclones in 2001, including two depressions that never reached tropical storm strength, and gives the season an accumulated cyclone energy of 110.1. Its counts of tropical storms, hurricanes and major hurricanes match the National Hurricane Center's season summary. Four systems, Allison, Karen, Noel and Olga, spent part of their lives as subtropical cyclones; their subtropical-stage winds are included in the season counts.

By the hurricane center's measure, the season ran well above the long-term average of about 10 named storms, 6 hurricanes and 2 major hurricanes, and closely matched the 2000 season. Forecasters had expected less: Colorado State University's April outlook called for 12 named storms and 7 hurricanes, tempered by a possible weak to moderate El Niño, while warm sea surface temperatures and favourable sea level pressures were the main factors behind the above-average activity. When El Niño looked unlikely to develop during the peak months, NOAA nudged its August outlook upward to 9 to 12 named storms.

Most of the activity sat over the subtropical Atlantic north of about 25°N. Six named storms grew out of nontropical weather systems there, and several storms that formed in the deep tropics reached their peaks in the same region. No storm reached hurricane strength south of 23°N and east of 70°W, the first such season since 1993, even though six tropical storms and a depression formed in that zone.

A slow start and a late surge

Tropical Storm Allison formed just off the upper Texas coast on June 5, and a short-lived depression in mid-July was the only other system until August. Tropical Storm Barry formed in the Gulf of Mexico on August 2, followed by Tropical Storm Chantal in the Caribbean and Tropical Storm Dean near the Virgin Islands. Chantal and Dean, like Erin and Felix after them, weakened into open disturbances in the deep tropics before re-forming.

The season turned in September. Hurricane Erin became the first hurricane on September 8, the latest first hurricane since 1984, and Hurricane Felix, Hurricane Gabrielle and Hurricane Humberto followed within three weeks. Eleven of the 15 named storms, including all nine hurricanes, formed after September 1; only the 1887 and 1969 seasons produced more tropical cyclones in the September to November period.

October brought Hurricane Iris and Tropical Storm Jerry from the tropics, and Hurricane Karen and Tropical Storm Lorenzo from nontropical systems further north. Hurricane Michelle formed off Nicaragua on October 29, Hurricane Noel developed from a nontropical low in the east-central Atlantic in early November, and Hurricane Olga formed on November 24. Olga looped over the open ocean until December 4, running the season beyond its official end.

Strongest storms

Hurricane Iris was a small hurricane that intensified rapidly over very warm, deep water in the northwestern Caribbean, its winds rising from 75 kt to 120 kt in about 18 hours. It reached its peak of 125 kt, Category 4, just before landfall near Monkey River Town, Belize, around the start of October 9, with a lowest pressure of 948 hPa.

Hurricane Michelle recorded the lowest pressure of the season, 933 hPa on November 3, after its central pressure fell 51 hPa in about 29 hours. Its peak winds of 120 kt came on November 4 as it accelerated towards Cuba, making it the second major hurricane in November within three years.

The two other major hurricanes stayed at sea. Hurricane Erin peaked at 105 kt on September 9 about 80 nautical miles east-northeast of Bermuda, which lay on the storm's weaker side, and later passed just east of Cape Race, Newfoundland. Hurricane Felix reached 100 kt on September 14 southwest of the Azores. Hurricane Humberto peaked at 90 kt on September 26 south-southeast of Sable Island, Nova Scotia.

Landfalls and impacts

Tropical Storm Allison was the season's deadliest and costliest storm. After landfall near Freeport, Texas, it stalled over southeastern Texas and brought catastrophic floods to Houston, then became a subtropical system and spread heavy rain from Louisiana to North Carolina and up the East Coast to Massachusetts. The hurricane center counted 41 direct deaths, 23 of them in Texas, and federal and state estimates put damage near $5 billion in 2001 US dollars, about $4.9 billion of it around Houston. At the time it was the deadliest and costliest tropical or subtropical storm on record in the United States.

Tropical Storm Barry and Tropical Storm Gabrielle both struck Florida just below hurricane strength, Barry on the Panhandle near Santa Rosa Beach on August 6 and Gabrielle near Venice on September 14. Barry caused two direct deaths and an estimated $30 million in total damage, and Gabrielle two direct deaths and an estimated $230 million, both in 2001 US dollars. Tropical Storm Chantal came ashore at 60 kt near the Belize and Mexico border on August 21, causing around $4 million in damage in Belize.

Hurricane Iris devastated southern Belize, where Monkey River Town, Placencia and Independence took a storm surge of 2.5 to 4.5 metres. It directly caused 31 deaths, including 20 people aboard the dive boat Wave Dancer, which capsized in port near Big Creek, three in the Dominican Republic and at least eight in flash floods in Guatemala. The Belize government reported $66.2 million in damage in 2001 US dollars.

Hurricane Michelle was the strongest hurricane to hit Cuba since 1952. It crossed the offshore islands and then the mainland near the Bay of Pigs on November 4, destroying 12,579 homes and damaging 166,515 more, with Cuba's government estimating economic losses at $1.866 billion. Long warning lead times allowed about 600,000 people to evacuate. Press reports gave 17 deaths, 6 in Honduras, 5 in Cuba, 4 in Nicaragua and 2 in Jamaica, most from floods during the storm's slow early drift.

Further north, Karen passed just south of Bermuda as a strong subtropical storm on October 12, bringing gusts to hurricane force, leaving more than 23,000 people without power and later reaching Nova Scotia as a weak tropical storm. Heavy rain from Dean flooded 1,320 homes in Puerto Rico, while Erin and Gabrielle brought gales and heavy rain to southeastern Newfoundland after they recurved.

No US hurricane, and retired names

For the second year running, no hurricane struck the United States, making 2001 one of only four seasons, with 1951, 1990 and 2000, to produce eight or more hurricanes without a US mainland hurricane landfall. The hurricane center linked this to a mean ridge along about 25°N from August to October: storms south of it moved west into Central America, and those that formed north of it were steered away from the coast. It also judged that small changes in shear or timing would have made both Barry and Gabrielle hurricanes at landfall.

Michelle continued a run of late-season hurricanes in the western Caribbean, the eighth such storm from 1995 to 2001, after none there from 1982 to 1994. The World Meteorological Organization retired the names Allison, Iris and Michelle after the season, replacing them with Andrea, Ingrid and Melissa.