'Ida' Officially Retired From Future Atlantic Hurricane Season Name Lists

The decision to retire 2021's Hurricane Ida was made during an annual meeting held this week by the World Meteorological Organization's (WMO) hurricane committee.

Atlantic tropical storm and hurricane name lists repeat every six years unless a storm is so severe that the name is retired from future lists. This avoids any confusion or insensitivity over the use of particularly infamous storms like Harvey, Katrina, Maria or Sandy to describe another future storm.

Ida will be replaced in the 2027 hurricane season list by Imani.

According to the National Hurricane Center's report, 55 deaths were directly attributed to Ida's flooding, winds or tornadoes. Of those, 49 were killed in the Northeast from flooding. Victims drowned in cars, were swept away by floodwater and were trapped in homes or apartments. Six died in Louisiana and Mississippi from Ida's flooding and winds.

Ida's total damage was estimated by NOAA at $76.5 billion, which made it the fifth costliest U.S. tropical cyclone on record behind only Sandy, Maria, Harvey and Katrina.

(MORE: Full Hurricane Ida Recap)

Names beginning with the letter “I” have now been retired 12 times, the most of any letter. This is because these ninth named storms of a season tend to form in the most active months when conditions are most favorable for stronger hurricanes that could have a significant impact. (Note: "Iota" in the 2020 hurricane season was also retired, but was from the supplemental Greek letter name list after all names were used up.)

“Ida” replaced “Isabel” in the name list after that hurricane hammered the Mid-Atlantic, including the Washington, D.C. metro area, in 2003 and was subsequently retired.

Other retired "I" hurricanes this century include Irma in 2017, Irene in 2011, Ike in 2008 and Ivan in 2004.

Last spring, this WMO committee voted to retire Laura, Dorian, and the entire Greek alphabet from future use as tropical storm or hurricane names.

Ida makes the 94th name retired by the WMO since the first names - Carol, Hazel and Edna - were retired in 1954.

Ida's Gulf Coast Impact

First, Ida pummeled southeast Louisiana with storm surge up to 14 feet in some areas and up to 15 inches of rain. Several Louisiana towns were inundated, including Grand Isle, Jean Lafitte, Braithwaite, LaPlace and areas near the lakeshore in New Orleans.

(IMAGES: Before and After Ida in Louisiana)

Ida produced wind gusts over 100 mph, including a 172 mph gust on a ship in Port Fourchon that was among the nation’s strongest measured wind gusts from a hurricane. (That gust is still being verified further quality checks.) Gusts from 90 to 100 mph hammered the New Orleans metro area.

These winds downed all eight transmission lines supplying electricity to New Orleans. Power outages in Louisiana alone topped 1 million, and hundreds of thousands were without running water.

Ida was one of only five Category 4 landfalls on record in Louisiana. Its estimated winds at landfall - 150 mph - matched those from recently-retired Hurricane Laura in 2020 and the 1856 Last Island Hurricane. These three tied for the strongest landfalls west of the mouth of the Mississippi River in Louisiana, according to the National Hurricane Center's Ida report.

Ida's Northeast Impact

But Ida then put the exclamation point on that in the Northeast.

Despite being designated a post-tropical low, Ida’s circulation combined with a previously-stalled front to wring out prolific rain in the Mid-Atlantic and Northeast three days after its Louisiana landfall.

Up to 10 inches of rain swamped parts of Pennsylvania, Delaware, New Jersey, New York and southern New England.

Rain fell at just over 3 inches per hour at New York City’s Central Park, an all-time record dating to 1869. Newark, New Jersey, had its wettest single day in 90 years (8.41 inches).

(MORE: The Most Shocking Things We Saw in Ida's Historic Northeast Rainfall)

At least 11 locations set all-time river flood crest records, some of which topped crests set during Hurricane Irene (2011), Floyd (1999) or Agnes (1972), all retired hurricanes.

After the rain ended, lingering flooding left parts of New Jersey unrecognizable.

In Philadelphia, the Schuylkill River reached its highest level in almost 152 years, prompting evacuations in some areas.

A number of New York City residents died in flooded basements and hundreds were rescued not only in the NYC Tri-State, but also in Wilmington, Delaware, among other locations.

Runways at Newark-Liberty and Teterboro Airports in northern New Jersey were flooded.

It wasn’t just flooding, either.

Destructive tornadoes tore through Annapolis, Maryland, Mullica Hill, New Jersey, and other parts of the Delaware Valley north and south of Trenton, New Jersey.

The Mullica Hill, New Jersey, tornado was the first to be rated at least F/EF3 in the state since Oct. 18, 1990, according to NOAA's database.

Tornadoes that strong are particularly rare in tropical cyclones and their remnants.

According to research by Roger Edwards of NOAA's Storm Prediction Center, only 3 of 1,539 tropical cyclone-spawned tornadoes from 1995-2019 were rated F/EF3.

In all, Ida spawned 35 tornadoes from the Gulf Coast to the Northeast, according to the National Hurricane Center. Two other Northeast tornadoes were rated EF2, in Chester and Montgomery Counties, Pennsylvania. One person was killed in the Montgomery County tornado.

The Weather Company’s primary journalistic mission is to report on breaking weather news, the environment and the importance of science to our lives. This story does not necessarily represent the position of our parent company, IBM.