2001 What-might-have-been Atlantic hurricane season (Cooper)

The 2001 Atlantic hurricane season was an active season that produced 15 named storms, eight hurricanes, and three major hurricanes. The season officially lasted from June 1, 2001 to November 30, 2001, dates which by convention limit the period of each year when most tropical cyclones tend to form in the North Atlantic basin. The season began with Tropical Storm Allison on June 8 and ended with Hurricane Olga, which dissipated on December 9. The most intense storm was Hurricane Iris, which attained Category 4 status on the Saffir-Simpson Scale.

The 2001 season proved to be destructive. Tropical Storm Allison caused $6.2 billion from extensive flooding in Texas in June. In August, Hurricane Felix caused extensive damage in Central America, primarily Belize and Mexico. Later, in September, the season's strongest storm, Hurricane Iris, caused over $1 billion in damages in western Louisiana and eastern Texas, crippling areas that had already been devastated by Tropical Storm Allison 3 months earlier.

Storm Names
The following names were used for storms that formed in the north Atlantic during 2001. The names not retired from this list were used again in the 2007 season. This list is the same list that was used in the 1995 with the exceptions of Lorenzo, Michelle, Olga, and Rebekah, which replaced Luis, Marilyn, Opal, and Roxanne, respectively.

Retirement
In the spring of 2002, the World Meteorological Association retired the names Allison, Felix, and Iris from its rotating name lists. They were replaced with Andrea, Fernand, and Ingrid for the 2007 season. Allison was the first Atlantic tropical storm to have its name retired.