A Literal Storm Hits 'Bachelor in Paradise', and No, It's Not a Tahznado

Season 7 of Bachelor in Paradise is never short of surprises, so when a literal cyclone (not a metaphorical cyclone of drama) threatens the cast members, Paradise starts to look a lot more like Survivor and less like The Bachelor. Yes, in Episode 9 of Bachelor in Paradise, a tropical storm hits the beach, and the cast is forced to evacuate.

In all honesty, the fact that Bachelor in Paradise films in June every year at the beginning of hurricane season in a highly affected hurricane zone and hasn’t had this issue yet is pretty impressive. So it was only a matter of time before it had to happen. But what storm hit the beach, and did it delay filming at all?

As if we thought the drama couldn’t get any worse after the whole Brendan and Pieper debacle, the tropical storm definitely makes things crazy. And of course, fans of Bachelor Nation are joking that the producers somehow cooked up a storm to stir up drama. Honestly, if anyone could control the weather, we know it would be the producers of Bachelor in Paradise.

In response to previews of the storm, fans are tweeting out some classic Bachelor humor — one fan tweeted, “What’s more likely to kill these new guys? Aaron or a dangerous tropical storm?” (Our guess is most definitely Aaron.) Someone else asked, “Did the producers really summon a tropical storm?!” Where’s a gif of producers doing the rain dance? We know they asked for it.

Our best educated guess based on the filming schedule is that the storm in question was Tropical Storm Dolores. The storm hit the West Coast of Mexico from June 18 to June 20 and was actually pretty damaging.

There were tropical storm warnings and a hurricane watch issued to prepare people for Dolores — at least three people died and 55,000 people lost power. And Sayulita, the area in which Bachelor in Paradise was filmed, was at the center of it all.

Sure, tropical storms aren’t nearly as bad as hurricanes, but Tropical Storm Dolores was still pretty hectic. For those on the East Coast of the U.S., we recently dealt with Tropical Storm Ida, which was mounds more destructive for many people than Hurricane Henri, so who’s to say how bad a tropical storm is if you’re not really there?

Plus, the cast of Bachelor in Paradise lives in what appears to be a literal shack on the beach, so it definitely wouldn’t have been safe for them to stay there overnight. So, Wells Adams and the producers usher the cast members off the beach and into vans. One cast member even exclaims, “This could be the end of Paradise.” So is it the end?

Well, no. At most, filming was delayed 48 hours, but it was definitely delayed. Since the cast members are filmed 24/7, this of course had to be a bit affected by the storm.

However, this might have meant that producers just tried to fit more content into less time rather than extend the filming period. Regardless, we know that filming didn’t wrap until June 26, so whatever other effects the storm had on Paradise, this season is still invincible.

New episodes of Bachelor in Paradise air every Tuesday at 8 p.m. EST on ABC.