El Niño creates record-low Atlantic hurricane season
An El Niño pattern occurs every two to seven years.
September 12, 2026 / 11:26 AM EDT / CBS/AP
The Atlantic is quiet — record quiet — this hurricane season thanks to an enormous El Niño that crushes storms before they get going.
No Atlantic hurricanes have formed yet this year and none are likely to form for at least another week, even though this would normally be the peak of the season, according to the National Hurricane Center. The season officially runs from the beginning of June until the end of November. It normally peaks between August and October. Only five relatively weak and brief tropical storms have spun up this season.
On Saturday, 2026 set a record for the longest a season has begun without a storm that has reached winds of 64 mph to qualify as a hurricane — at least in the satellite era, said Nick Novella, a meteorologist at the government's Weather Prediction Center. Before the 1950s there were a few years where no hurricanes were recorded this late in the season, but meteorologists don't trust those records because ocean monitoring wasn't complete.
Overall hurricane activity using a measurement that factors in the number of storms, their strength and how long they last is also at a post-1950 record low, according to Colorado State University hurricane expert Phil Klotzbach. Storm activity in the Atlantic is only 7% of normal for this time of year. A team of experts from Colorado State University predicted in their 2026 annual hurricane report that nine named storms would form in the Atlantic basin.
People shouldn't let down their guard because it just takes one storm, even during an El Niño, to be catastrophic. Several experts pointed to 1992, which kicked off late but nastily with devastating Hurricane Andrew. Less powerful storms can also be dangerous.