Hurricane season: dates, peak and every season since 1980

When is hurricane season?

Every ocean basin has its own season. Where an agency sets official dates, the table shows them. The peak and the averages come from our archive of every storm since 1980, over the 1991–2020 normal that NHC also uses.

NHC’s official 1991–2020 averages are 14 named storms, 7 hurricanes and 3 major hurricanes in the Atlantic, and 15, 8 and 4 in the eastern Pacific. Our archive gives 14.4, 7.2 and 3.2 for the same 30 Atlantic seasons.

Hawaii is in the Central Pacific basin, but many storms that approach the islands form in the eastern Pacific. See Hawaii hurricane season for storms near the islands.

The West Pacific has no official typhoon season. Typhoons formed in every month of the year from 1991 to 2020, most often in August. See typhoon season in Japan and the Philippines.

The North Indian Ocean has two cyclone seasons, either side of the monsoon: storms peak in May–June and again in October–November. In the Southern Hemisphere the busiest months are January–February; our counts follow IBTrACS and run July to June, so the 2025–26 season is filed as 2026.

When is the peak of hurricane season?

September. From 1991 to 2020, 31% of Atlantic named storms formed in September, and so did 39% of hurricanes and 42% of major hurricanes. August and October come next. Half of all named storms had formed by September 5, counted by calendar date.

Counting the storms in progress on each day, our tracks are busiest around September 12. NHC’s climatology puts the peak on September 10. The chart shows how many storms reach each strength in each month of an average season.

The eastern Pacific peaks earlier. August is its busiest month, with 24% of named storms, against 31% for September in the Atlantic, and 67% form from July to September.

When does hurricane season end, and can storms form after it?

The Atlantic and eastern Pacific seasons officially end on November 30. The date is a convention, not a cutoff. Since 1980, 23 Atlantic storms reached tropical-storm strength outside the season: 17 before June 1 and 6 after November 30.

The latest in the calendar year was Zeta, on December 30, 2005. The earliest was Alex, which reached tropical-storm strength on January 12, 2016 and went on to become a hurricane.

Early starts are now common. In 6 of the 10 seasons from 2017 to 2026, a storm formed before June 1. The most recent named storm to form before June 1 was Ana, on May 22, 2021. In the eastern Pacific, only 0.5% of named storms since 1991 formed outside May 15 to November 30.

Hurricane season in the Caribbean, Gulf and Florida

All three are in the Atlantic basin, so the official season is the same: June 1 to November 30. What differs is when storms arrive. These are the storms that made landfall in each place since 1980, counted once, in the month of their first landfall there.

• Caribbean islands: 84 storms, 36 of them at hurricane strength. 69% came in August–October and 13 in November or December. The busiest month is August.
• Gulf coast, Texas to Alabama: 74 storms, 36 of them at hurricane strength. June and July brought 32% of them, against 19% in Florida and 12% on the islands. The busiest month is September.
• Florida: 69 storms, 23 of them at hurricane strength. 70% came in August–October, and September is the busiest month with 20. Florida has had landfalls in every month from May to November.

Landfall points come from the IBTrACS best track. The US state of a landfall is the state of the nearest town to that point.

The 2026 season so far

As of October 1, the 2026 Atlantic season has had 6 named storms and 0 hurricanes. By this date an average season (1991–2020) has 11.0 named storms and 5.3 hurricanes, and it ends with 14.4 and 7.2.

No Atlantic season since 1980 had gone this long without a hurricane. Before 2026, the latest first hurricanes were Gustav (2002) and Humberto (2013), both on September 11. NHC says the first hurricane usually forms in early to mid-August.

The eastern Pacific has had 18 named storms and 9 hurricanes, against an average of 13.1 and 7.2 by this date. Right now 2 storms are active in the Atlantic and Pacific.

Every storm, with tracks, peaks and landfalls: 2026 Atlantic hurricane season, 2026 Pacific hurricane season and all six basins in 2026.

Busiest and quietest seasons since 1980

Named storms show how many storms formed. Accumulated cyclone energy (ACE) shows how much wind they produced: it adds up the square of each storm’s maximum sustained wind every six hours while it is at tropical-storm strength, so one long Category 5 can outweigh several weak storms. The rankings cover the complete seasons from 1980 to 2025.

The 2005 Atlantic season holds the ACE record in our archive at 250, 2.0 times the 1991–2020 average.

Every season since 1980: historical hurricane tracks

Open any season for its historical hurricane tracks on one map, each storm’s peak and landfalls, and its ACE against the average. The year links to all six basins at once.