National Report

Despite higher than usual hurricane activity, the 2001 Atlantic hurricane season officially ended in late November with no hurricanes making landfall in the U.S., for the second year in a row. “The respite in hurricane landfalls can be attributed partially to luck, and a persistent trough near the U.S. East Coast that helped steer away the storms,” said Max Mayfield, director of the National Hurricane Center. Several of this year’s storms stayed well to the south, moving westward through the Caribbean, following the easterly steering winds, while other potential hurricanes were weakened by unfavorable upper-level winds, he explained. Three new records were set in 2001, however. It was the first season with nine hurricanes forming after Sept. 8, including the very tardy arrival of Hurricane Olga on Nov. 26.