It's over!!!

Six months and 19 storms later, the 2011 hurricane season has come to an end.

It started with Arlene on June 28th and ended with Sean on November 11th. 

Officially, 19 tropical storms formed, seven of which became hurricanes. Three of those were major hurricanes with winds over 110 mph.

The 19 tropical storms gives 2011 the third highest total of storms(tied with 1887, 1995 and 2010) since records began in 1851.

The long-term average is 11 named storms, 6 hurricanes and 2 major.

So 2011 was well above average but close to the early season forecasts issued by both NOAA and Dr. Klotzbach and Dr. Gray out of Colorado State University which both indicated a busy year.

This year’s totals include a post-storm upgrade of Tropical Storm Nate to a hurricane and the addition of a short-lived unnamed tropical storm that formed in early September between Bermuda and Nova Scotia. This unnamed storm and several other weak ones this year could have gone undetected if it wasn’t for modern satellite technology.

Even though 2011 was active, only one hurricane hit the United States. That was Irene, the first one to hit the U.S. since Ike hit Texas in 2008. 

Irene was a powerful August storm that passed to our east in the Bahamas as a category 3 hurricane before making landfall in the outer banks of North Carolina as a Category 1 hurricane.  

Irene continued north as a hurricane, made a second U.S. landfall in New Jersey, then weakened and made its third and final U.S. landfall near Coney Island, New York as a tropical storm with winds around 65 mph.

 

It was the first significant tropical cyclone to strike the northeast since Hurricane Bob in 1991. 

Irene affected nearly the entire eastern seaboard, causing power outages to 7.4 million homes and an estimated $7 billion in damage.

We continue to count our blessings as no major hurricanes have hit the U.S. for a record six straight years.

We all remember the last major hurricane to strike the U.S.  That was Wilma back in 2005.

Let’s hope next year we are just as lucky!