Jim Bradshaw: Two at a time hurricanes are a rarity

We have not even reached the peak of the hurricane season and the 2020 storm year is already one that can be called nothing but ex-traordinary.
September 10, generally regarded as the peak of the season, is still days away, and we’ve already seen 12 named storms this year. Until recent times a dozen has been considered the average number for a whole year, and only a few with the destructive power of Laura.
We got an early start this year. You’ll remember that Cristobal went immediately into the records on June 2, when it became the earliest Atlantic or Gulf storm to begin with the letter C (or that would have been a C storm in the days before we named them).
Then Marco and Laura sent the weather gurus had to back to their research books because nobody could remember the last time there were two storms in the Gulf at the same time. It looks like that’s happened only twice before, in 1933 and 1950.
In October 1933, two Gulf hurricanes struck within 24 hours of each other, but they made land about as far away from each other as possible. One hit at Brownsville, Texas, the other hit in Florida. They were a part of a busy hurricane year. Six hurricanes hit the U.S. and four hit Mexico, but none of them came to Louisiana,
1950, the other year when two named storms were in the Gulf at the same time, was another of the busiest on record. Eleven hurricanes formed that year, six of them Category 3 or stronger, but neither of the two storms simultaneously in the Gulf reached hurricane strength. They were among the five other storms that formed that year that got names but no notoriety.
There have been several seasons when more than one hurricane struck Louisiana, but never one storm right behind the other. The most memorable in recent times was 2005, when Rita struck southwest Louisiana only weeks after Katrina hit New Orleans. We tend to forget that those were actually the second and third hurricanes to hit the state that summer. Cindy briefly reached hurri-cane strength before coming ashore near Grand Isle in early July.
Danny, Elena, and Juan hit in Louisiana in 1985, the only other year in recent memory when we saw three. Danny came inland near Pecan Island in August, Elena hit southeast Louisiana in early September, and crazy Juan made a big loop in the Gulf before coming to Louisiana, made another loop across a big part of the state, went back into the Gulf to do another loop, then landed again near Pensacola.
The only other time we’ve seen three hurricanes in a single year was in 1860. One came ashore in Plaquemines Parish in August, another landed near the mouth of the Mississippi in September, and the third one came across Atchafalaya Bay in early October.
We’ve had a couple of years when two hurricanes hit Louisiana and several years of near misses. In 1947, for example, an August storm stayed just offshore as it moved through the Gulf but a second one went directly over New Orleans. You can also make a pretty good list of years when we’ve seen a hurricane and a tropical storm or seen two or more tropical storms but no hurri-canes.
We hoped and prayed after Marco fizzled out that Laura would follow suit, but instead the storm grew into something more powerful than anyone at first predicted., leaving many friends, neighbors, and loved ones in western Louisiana in dire straits.
It appears that it will take weeks or months for some of them to get right again, if ever.
Do what you can to help them. As our long storm history shows, we’re in this together. We have all faced times like these before, and surely will face them again.
A collection of Jim Bradshaw’s columns, Cajuns and Other Characters, is now available from Pelican Publishing. You can contact him at jimbrad-shaw4321@gmail.com or P.O. Box 1121, Washington LA 70589.