Hurricane Gonzalo was the second tropical cyclone, after Hurricane Fay, to directly strike the island of Bermuda in a one-week time frame in October 2014, and was the first Category 4 Atlantic hurricane since Hurricane Ophelia in 2011. At the time, it was the strongest hurricane in the Atlantic since Igor in 2010. Gonzalo struck Bermuda less than a week after the surprisingly fierce Hurricane Fay; 2014 was the first season in recorded history to feature two hurricane landfalls in Bermuda. A powerful Atlantic tropical cyclone that wrought destruction in the Leeward Islands and Bermuda, Gonzalo was the seventh named storm, sixth and final hurricane and only the second major hurricane of the below-average 2014 Atlantic hurricane season. The storm formed from a tropical wave on October 12, while located east of the Lesser Antilles. It made landfall on Antigua, Saint Martin, and Anguilla as a Category 1 hurricane, causing damage on those and nearby islands. Antigua and Barbuda sustained US$40 million in losses, and boats were abundantly damaged or destroyed throughout the northern Leeward Islands. The storm killed three people on Saint Martin and Saint Barthélemy. Gonzalo tracked northwestward as it intensified into a major hurricane. Eyewall replacement cycles led to fluctuations in the hurricane's structure and intensity, but on October 16, Gonzalo peaked with maximum sustained winds of 145 mph (235 km/h).

Hurricane Ophelia was the most intense hurricane of the 2011 Atlantic hurricane season. The seventeenth tropical cyclone, sixteenth tropical storm, fifth hurricane, and third major hurricane, Ophelia originated in a tropical wave in the central Atlantic, forming approximately midway between the Cape Verde Islands and the Lesser Antilles on September 17. Tracking generally west-northwestward, Ophelia was upgraded to a tropical storm on September 21, and reached an initial peak of 65 mph (105 km/h) on September 22. As the storm entered a region of higher wind shear it began to weaken, and was subsequently downgraded to a remnant low on September 25. The following day, however, the remnants of the system began to reorganize as wind shear lessened, and on September 27, the National Hurricane Center once again began advisories on the system. Moving northward, Ophelia regained tropical storm status early on September 28, and rapidly deepened to attain its peak intensity with maximum sustained winds of 140 mph (230 km/h) several days later. The system weakened as it entered cooler sea surface temperatures and began a gradual transition to an extratropical cyclone, a process it completed by October 3.