This year’s Atlantic hurricane season was the third most active on record for named storms, with Hurricane Ida the most damaging as it knocked out power to more than a million Louisiana residents and caused extensive water outages.

The latest season, which runs from June to November, was characterised by 21 storms. That compares with a record-holding 30 in 2020 and 28 in 2005. There were seven hurricanes – four of which reached Category 3, 4, or 5 intensity.

“We not only saw historic levels of flooding in coastal areas this year but throughout inland communities as well,” Insurance Information Institute (Triple-I) CEO Sean Kevelighan said.

Over the past two hurricane seasons, 18 named storms have made a mainland US landfall, with seven impacting Louisiana.

Ida made landfall on August 29 as a Category 4 hurricane with maximum sustained winds of 150 miles an hour. It is projected to be among the top five costliest tropical storms on record in terms of insured losses.

In September, Hurricane Nicholas made landfall near Sargent Beach, Texas as a Category 1 storm, while tropical storm Danny made landfall in June; Elsa in July, Fred and Henri in August, and Mindy in September.

Elsa, Fred and Mindy were all in Florida while Danny was in South Carolina, and Henri struck Rhode Island.

Nine named storms formed in September. Sam, the strongest, reached Category 4 intensity and remained at major hurricane strength for nearly eight days but never made landfall

In May, tropical Storm Ana formed, marking the seventh consecutive year at least one named storm formed before the official hurricane season starting date of June 1.