JACKSONVILE, Fla. – The 2021 hurricane season was another overactive year checking off all the names on the hurricane list for a second year in a row.
The 2021 hurricane began weeks early with Tropical Storm Ana in May and abruptly ended with Tropical Storm Wanda after the first week in November.
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Ever since November 7, the Atlantic basin and across the world went quiet without a single hurricane anywhere on the planet.
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You could say Florida dodged another spinning bullet having weathered rainmakers, Fred and Mindy, relatively well. But Tropical Storm Elsa was our biggest threat when it passed 100 miles west of Jacksonville in July.
Tropical Storm Elsa will be remembered for the EF1 tornado that ripped roofs apart and snapped trees around San Jose and Phillips Highway and ripped through St. Marys/Kings Bay, Georgia.
Elsa’s wet, menacing right side of the storm blasting into the First Coast with winds gusting over 40 mph. A tree fell killing a man driving on Roosevelt Boulevard in Ortega. Heavy rain resulted in a Jacksonville daily record of 2.66 inches in Jacksonville.
Beyond Elsa, our area fortunately sat on the sidelines watching a series of storms target the Gulf states or track out to sea in the Atlantic.
Florida had its third consecutive year without a major hurricane impacting the state, and it needed a respite after Irma in 2017 and Michael in 2018.
The final tally of 21 named storms this year makes it the third-most active Atlantic hurricane season on record.