Hurricane Season Arrives June 1

Hurricane season runs from June 1 – November 30 in the Atlantic Ocean, including the Gulf of Mexico and Caribbean Sea.  The season doesn’t usually get active until August when conditions are more favorable, due to warmer sea surface temperatures (typically at least 80° Fahrenheit) and a decreased amount of wind shear.  Meanwhile, it is possible, although rare, for a tropical storm to form before the hurricane season begins.

The National Hurricane Center has been watching an area of showers and thunderstorms in the Gulf of Mexico that has a decreasing chance of developing into a tropical system.  A total of eight named storms have formed in the Atlantic Ocean outside of the hurricane season over the last 10 years.  For example, Hurricane Alex formed in January 2016 over the central Atlantic Ocean.

There have been five May tropical storms in the Atlantic Ocean since 2008.  No clear correlation exists between an earlier than average start to the hurricane season and a busier than average one.  For example, the 1992 Atlantic hurricane season was quieter than average, but Hurricane Andrew developed that year and remains one of the costliest and most intense hurricanes in U.S. history.  That’s after a subtropical storm formed over the central Atlantic in April 1992.  

Subtropical storms are relatively rare and contain both tropical and non-tropical characteristics.  They can sometimes transition into a tropical system if environmental conditions become more favorable.  Hurricane Chris began as a subtropical storm in 2012.  The National Hurricane Center officially began recognizing subtropical storms in the early 1970s, but they didn’t begin receiving names until 2002.

Headlines from the 2017 Atlantic hurricane season were dominated by the devastating hurricanes that occurred in August and September.  Last season got off to an earlier than average start with a very rare April tropical storm, Arlene.  Two Atlantic tropical storms (Bret and Cindy) also existed concurrently in June 2017 for only the third time on record.  Experts at Colorado State and North Carolina State University are predicting a slightly busier than average 2018 hurricane season.