Atlantic hurricane season

Atlantic tropical storm and hurricane frequency, by month

Hurricane tracks from 1980 through 2014. Green tracks did not make landfall in US; yellow tracks made landfall but were not major hurricanes at the time; red tracks made landfall and were major hurricanes.

The Atlantic hurricane season is the period in a year from June through November when hurricanes usually form in the Atlantic Ocean. Tropical cyclones in the North Atlantic are called hurricanes, tropical storms, or tropical depressions. In addition, there have been several storms over the years that have not been fully tropical and are categorized as subtropical depressions and subtropical storms. Even though subtropical storms and subtropical depressions are not technically as strong as tropical cyclones, the damages can still be devastating.

Worldwide, tropical cyclone activity peaks in late summer, when the difference between temperatures aloft and sea surface temperatures is the greatest. However, each particular basin has its own seasonal patterns. On a worldwide scale, May is the least active month, while September is the most active. In the Northern Atlantic Ocean, a distinct hurricane season occurs from June 1 to November 30, sharply peaking from late August through September; the season's climatological peak of activity occurs around September 10 each season. This is the norm, but in 1938, the Atlantic hurricane season started as early as January 3.

Tropical disturbances that reach tropical storm intensity are named from a pre-determined list. On average, 10.1 named storms occur each season, with an average of 5.9 becoming hurricanes and 2.5 becoming major hurricanes (Category 3 or greater). The most active season on record was 2020, during which 29 named tropical cyclones formed. Despite this, the 2005 season had more hurricanes, developing a record of 15 such storms. The least active season was 1914, with only one known tropical cyclone developing during that year. The Atlantic hurricane season is a time when most tropical cyclones are expected to develop across the northern Atlantic Ocean. It is currently defined as the time frame from June 1 through November 30, though in the past the season was defined as a shorter time frame. During the season, regular tropical weather outlooks are issued by the National Hurricane Center, and coordination between the Weather Prediction Center and National Hurricane Center occurs for systems which have not formed yet, but could develop during the next three to seven days. There is also a season within a season. The strongest time for hurricane activity seems to be between mid-August thru mid-October. Wind factors and temperature and moisture are perfect during this time to encourage cyclonic activity.

Concept

See also: History of Atlantic hurricane warnings

The basic concept of a hurricane season began during 1935, when dedicated wire circuits known as hurricane circuits began to be set up along the Gulf and Atlantic coasts, a process completed by 1955. It was originally the time frame when the tropics were monitored routinely for tropical cyclone activity, and was originally defined as from June 15 through October 31. Over the years, the beginning date was shifted back to June 1, while the end date was shifted to November 15, before settling at November 30 by 1965. This was when hurricane reconnaissance planes were sent out to fly across the Atlantic and Gulf of Mexico on a routine basis to look for potential tropical cyclones, in the years before the continuous weather satellite era. Since regular satellite surveillance began, hurricane hunter aircraft fly only into storm areas which are first spotted by satellite imagery.

Operations

See also: National Hurricane Center and Weather Prediction Center

During the hurricane season, the National Hurricane Center routinely issues their Tropical Weather Outlook product, which identifies areas of concern within the tropics which could develop into tropical cyclones. If systems occur outside the defined hurricane season, special Tropical Weather Outlooks will be issued. Routine coordination occurs at 1700 UTC each day between the Weather Prediction Center and National Hurricane Center to identify systems for the pressure maps three to seven days into the future within the tropics, and points for existing tropical cyclones six to seven days into the future. Possible tropical cyclones are depicted with a closed isobar, while systems with less certainty to develop are depicted as "spot lows" with no isobar surrounding them.

HURDAT

Main article: HURDAT

The North Atlantic hurricane database, or HURDAT, is the database for all tropical storms and hurricanes for the Atlantic Ocean, Gulf of Mexico and Caribbean Sea, including those that have made landfall in the United States. The original database of six-hourly positions and intensities were put together in the 1960s in support of the Apollo space program to help provide statistical track forecast guidance. In the intervening years, this database — which is now freely and easily accessible on the Internet from the National Hurricane Center's (NHC) webpage — has been utilized for a wide variety of uses: climatic change studies, seasonal forecasting, risk assessment for county emergency managers, analysis of potential losses for insurance and business interests, intensity forecasting techniques and verification of official and various model predictions of track and intensity.

HURDAT was not designed with all of these uses in mind when it was first put together and not all of them may be appropriate given its original motivation. HURDAT contains numerous systematic as well as some random errors in the database. Additionally, analysis techniques have changed over the years at NHC as their understanding of tropical cyclones has developed, leading to biases in the historical database. Another difficulty in applying the hurricane database to studies concerned with landfalling events is the lack of exact location, time and intensity at hurricane landfall.

Re-analysis project

Main article: Atlantic hurricane reanalysis

HURDAT is regularly updated annually to reflect the previous season's activity. The older portion of the database has been regularly revised since 2001. The first time in 2001 led to the addition of tropical cyclone tracks for the years 1851 to 1885. The second time was in October 2002 when Hurricane Andrew (August 1992) was upgraded to a Category 5. Recent efforts into uncovering undocumented historical hurricanes in the late 19th and 20th centuries by various researchers have greatly increased our knowledge of these past events. Tropical storms from 1851 to 1965 have already been reanalyzed with most recently, re-analysis of tropical storms from 1961 to 1965 being completed and integrated into HURDAT database in November 2019. Possible changes for the years 1966 onward are not yet incorporated into the HURDAT database. Because of all of these issues, a re-analysis of the Atlantic hurricane database is being attempted that will be completed in three years.

In addition to the groundbreaking work by Partagas, additional analyses, digitization and quality control of the data was carried out by researchers at the NOAA Hurricane Research Division funded by the NOAA Office of Global Programs.

The National Hurricane Center's Best Track Change Committee has approved changes for a few recent cyclones, such as Hurricane Andrew. Official changes to the Atlantic hurricane database are approved by the National Hurricane Center Best Track Change Committee.

1494–1850 (pre-HURDAT era)

Period	Seasons	Individual years
Pre-19th century	Pre-17th century (pre 1600), 17th century (1600s), 18th century (1700s)	1780
1800–1849	1800–1809, 1810–1819, 1820–1829, 1830–1839, 1840–1849	1842

1850–1899 (1851–present HURDAT era)

1850s

Year	Number of tropical storms	Number of hurricanes	Number of major hurricanes	ACE	Deaths	Strongest storm	Major landfall hurricanes	Notes
1850	7	7	7	0		Unknown	One
1851	6	3	1	36.24	24	Four	• Great Florida Middle Panhandle Hurricane of 1851 (cat 3)	First Atlantic hurricane season to be included in the ATL-HURDAT
1852	5	5	1	73.28	100+	One	• Great Mobile Hurricane of 1852 (cat 3)	One of only three known seasons in which all tropical cyclones became hurricanes.
1853	8	4	2	76.49	40	Three		Features the earliest known category 4 hurricane on the Saffir-Simpson scale.
1854	5	3	1	31.00	30+	Three	• Coastal Hurricane of 1854 (cat 3)
1855	5	4	1	18.12	Not known	Five	• Middle Gulf Shore Hurricane of 1855 (cat 3)
1856	6	4	2	48.94	200+	One	• The Last Island Hurricane of 1856 (cat 4)	Features the Last Island hurricane, the strongest hurricane to make landfall in Louisiana, later tied with Laura (2020).
1857	4	3	0	46.84	424	Two & Four
1858	6	6	0	44.79	None	Three & Six
1859	8	7	1	55.73	Numerous	Six

1860s

Year	Number of tropical storms	Number of hurricanes	Number of major hurricanes	ACE	Deaths	Strongest storm	Major landfall hurricanes	Notes
1860	7	6	1	62.06	60+	One
1861	8	6	0	49.71	22+	One and Three
1862	6	3	0	46.03	3	Two and Three
1863	9	5	0	50.35	90	One, Two, Three & Four
1864	5	3	0	26.55	None	One, Three & Five
1865	7	3	0	49.13	326	Four & Seven
1866	7	6	1	83.65	383	Six	• Great Bahamas Hurricane of 1866 (cat 4)
1867	9	6	1	59.97	811	'San Narciso'	• Hurricane San Narciso of 1867 (cat 3)
1868	4	3	0	34.65	2	One, Two & Four
1869	10	7	1	51.02	38	Six	• First New England Gale of 1869 (cat 3) • Saxby's New England Gale of 1869 (cat 2)

1870s

Year	Number of tropical storms	Number of hurricanes	Number of major hurricanes	ACE	Deaths	Strongest storm	Major landfall hurricanes	Notes
1870	11	10	2	87.80	2,052	Four	• First Key West Hurricane 1870/Hurricane of San Marcos 1870 (cat 3) • Second Key West Hurricane 1870 (cat 2)
1871	8	6	2	88.39	30	Three and Four	• Central Florida Hurricane of 1871 (cat 3) • Hurricane Santa Juana of 1871 (cat 3)
1872	5	4	0	65.38	Unknown	Two
1873	5	3	2	69.47	626	Five	• Central Florida Hurricane of 1873 (cat 3)
1874	7	4	0	47.05	Unknown	Seven
1875	6	5	1	72.48	800	Three	• Indianola Hurricane of 1875 (cat 3)
1876	5	4	2	56.05	19	"San Felipe"	• Hurricane San Felipe of 1876 (cat 3) • Cuba-South Florida Hurricane of 1876 (cat 3)
1877	8	3	1	73.36	34	Four	• Florida Panhandle hurricane of 1877 (cat 3)
1878	12	10	1	180.85	108	Seven	• Gale of 1878 (cat 2)	Features the first above average (and hyperactive) season on record.
1879	8	6	2	63.63	47	Four	• Great Beaufort Carolina Hurricane of 1879 (cat 3) • Louisiana Hurricane of 1879 (cat 3)

1880s

Year	Number of tropical storms	Number of hurricanes	Number of major hurricanes	ACE	Deaths	Strongest storm	Major landfall hurricanes	Notes
1880	11	9	2	131.08	133	Eight	• Brownsville Hurricane of 1880 (cat 4)
1881	7	4	0	59.25	700	Five and Six	• Georgia Hurricane of 1881 (cat 2)
1882	6	5	2	59.47	6	Six	• Pensacola Hurricane of 1882 (cat 3) • Cuba Hurricane of 1882 (cat 4)
1883	4	3	2	66.70	236	Two and Three	• Bahamas-North Carolina Hurricane of 1883 (cat 3)
1884	4	4	1	72.06	8	Two
1885	8	6	1	58.30	25	Two
1886	12	10	4	166.17	200+	"Indianola"	• Indianola Hurricane of 1886 (cat 4) • Cuba Hurricane of 1886 (cat 3) • Texas-Louisiana Hurricane of 1886 (cat 3)	Seven hurricanes struck the United States, the most during a single year. Indianola, Texas struck by two major hurricanes (1875 and 1886) which effectively closed down the town.
1887	19	11	2	181.26	2	Seven		Tied for third most active season on record; with 1995, 2010, 2011, and 2012. Has the most storms forming outside the normal hurricane season One of only 4 seasons to have both a preseason and postseason storm
1888	9	6	2	84.95	924	Three and Four	• Miami-Louisiana Hurricane of 1888 (cat 3) • Hurricane San Gil of 1888 (cat 3)
1889	9	6	0	104.04	40	Six

1890s

Year	Number of tropical storms	Number of hurricanes	Number of major hurricanes	ACE	Deaths	Strongest storm	Major landfall hurricanes	Notes
1890	4	2	1	33.35	9	Three
1891	10	7	1	116.11	700+	"Martinique"	• Martinique Hurricane of 1891 (cat 3)
1892	9	5	0	115.84	16	Three, Five, and Seven
1893	12	10	5	231.15	4,028	"Cheniere Caminada"	• Hurricane San Roque of 1893 (cat 3) • New York Hurricane of 1893 (cat 3) • 1893 Sea Islands Hurricane (cat 3) • Great Charleston Hurricane (cat 3) • 1893 Cheniere Caminada hurricane (cat 4)	5 major hurricanes made landfall this year. Two hurricanes caused more than 2,000 deaths in the United States. Four simultaneous hurricanes on August 22, one of two times on record.
1894	7	5	4	135.42	200+	Six	• Florida Panhandle Hurricane of 1894 (cat 3)
1895	6	2	0	68.77	56	Two
1896	7	6	2	136.08	130	Four	• Hurricane San Ramon of 1896 (cat 3) • Cedar Keys Hurricane of 1896 (cat 3)
1897	6	3	0	54.54	None	One
1898	11	5	1	113.24	562	"Georgia"	• Georgia Hurricane of 1898 (cat 4)	Major hurricane last struck Georgia in 1881
1899	9	5	2	151.03	3,439	"San Ciriaco"	• Hurricane San Ciriaco of 1899/Great Bahamas Hurricane of 1899 (cat 4)	The San Ciriaco hurricane was the longest lasting Atlantic hurricane on record

1900s

NOTE: In the following tables, all estimates of damage costs are expressed in contemporaneous US dollars (USD).

1900s

Year	Number of tropical storms	Number of hurricanes	Number of major hurricanes	ACE	Deaths	Damage USD	Strongest storm	Major landfall hurricanes	Notes
1900	7	3	2	83.35	8,000+	$60 million	"Galveston"	• Great Galveston Hurricane of 1900 (cat 4)	The Galveston hurricane was the deadliest disaster in the United States.
1901	12	5	1	98.98	10	$1 million	Seven
1902	5	3	0	32.65	None	Unknown	Four
1903	10	7	1	102.07	228	$1.15 million	Two	• Jamaica Hurricane of 1903 (cat 3)
1904	5	3	0	30.35	87	$1 million	Two
1905	5	1	1	28.38	1	Unknown	Four
1906	11	6	3	162.88	367	$2.48 million	Four	• Mississippi Hurricane of 1906 (cat 3) • Florida Keys Hurricane of 1906 (cat 3)
1907	5	0	0	13.06	None	Unknown	One		One of two seasons with no recorded hurricanes, with the other being 1914.
1908	10	6	1	95.11	None	Unknown	Six		Includes the only known March tropical cyclone in the basin
1909	11	6	4	93.34	4,614	$75 million	"Grand Isle"	• 1909 Velasco hurricane (cat 3) • 1909 Monterrey hurricane (cat 3) • 1909 Grand Isle hurricane (cat 3) • 1909 Key West Hurricane (cat 3) • 1909 Greater Antilles hurricane (cat 2)	3 major hurricanes made landfall this year

1910s

Year	Number of tropical storms	Number of hurricanes	Number of major hurricanes	ACE	Deaths	Damage USD	Strongest storm	Major landfall hurricanes	Notes
1910	5	3	1	63.90	100	$1.25 million	"Cuba"	• The Great Cuba Hurricane of 1910 (cat 4)
1911	6	3	0	34.29	27	$3 million	Three
1912	7	4	1	57.26	116	$67,000	Seven	• The Jamaica Hurricane of 1912 (cat 3)
1913	6	4	0	35.60	5	$4 million	Four
1914	1	0	0	2.53	0	Unknown	One		Least active season on record. One of two seasons with no recorded hurricanes, with the other being 1907.
1915	6	5	4	130.10	675	$63 million	"New Orleans"	• Great Galveston Hurricane of 1915 (cat 4) • New Orleans Hurricanes of 1915 (cat 4)	Two cat 4 hurricanes made landfall in US in same year. Galveston last struck with major hurricane in 1900.
1916	15	10	5	144.01	31	$5.9 million	"Texas"	• Gulf Coast Hurricane of 1916 (cat 3) • Charleston Hurricane of 1916 (cat 3) • Great Texas Hurricane of 1916 (cat 4)	3 major hurricanes made landfall this year following a very active 1915 season.
1917	4	2	2	60.67	5	$170,000	"Nueva Gerona"	• Nueva Gerona Hurricane of 1917 (cat 4)
1918	6	4	1	39.87	34	$5+ million	One	• Louisiana Hurricane of 1918 (cat 3)
1919	5	2	1	55.04	~900	$22 million	"Florida Keys"	• Great Florida Keys Hurricane of 1919 (cat 4)

1920s

Year	Number of tropical storms	Number of hurricanes	Number of major hurricanes	ACE	Deaths	Damage USD	Strongest storm	Major landfall hurricanes	Notes
1920	5	4	0	29.81	2	$15.75 million	One
1921	7	5	2	86.53	6	$36.5 million	"Tampa Bay"	• Hurricane San Pedro of 1921 (cat 3) • Great Tampa Bay Hurricane of 1921 (cat 4)
1922	5	3	1	54.52	Unknown	Unknown	Two
1923	9	4	1	49.31	0	Unknown	Five
1924	11	5	2	100.19	150+	Unknown	"Cuba"	• Great Cuba Hurricane of 1924 (cat 5)	The first officially classified Category 5 Atlantic hurricane on the Saffir–Simpson Scale
1925	4	2	0	7.25	59+	$19.9 million	One
1926	11	8	6	229.56	1,315+	$1.4+ billion	"Miami"	• The Great Bahamas Hurricane of 1926 (cat 4) • Nova Scotia Hurricane of 1926 (cat 3) • Louisiana hurricane of 1926 (cat 3) • Great Miami Hurricane of 1926 (cat 4) • Great Havana-Bermuda Hurricane of 1926 (cat 4)	6 major hurricanes this year, 5 major landfalls
1927	8	4	1	56.48	184	Unknown	"Nova Scotia"	• Nova Scotia Hurricane of 1927 (cat 3)
1928	6	4	1	83.48	4,000+	$952.5+ million	"Okeechobee"	• Great Okeechobee Hurricane of 1928 (cat 5)	The Okeechobee hurricane is the only known hurricane to strike Puerto Rico at Category 5 strength.
1929	5	3	1	48.07	51	$9.0 million	"Florida"	• Great Bahamas Hurricane of 1929 (cat 4)

1930s

Year	Number of tropical storms	Number of hurricanes	Number of major hurricanes	ACE	Deaths	Damage USD	Strongest storm	Major landfall hurricanes	Notes
1930	3	2	2	49.77	8,000	$50 million	"Dominican Republic"	• Dominican Republic Hurricane of 1930 (cat 4)	The fifth deadliest hurricane on record
1931	13	3	1	47.84	2,502	$7.5 million	"Belize"	• Belize Hurricane of 1931 (cat 4)
1932	15	6	4	169.66	3,315	$37 million	"Cuba"	• Freeport Texas Hurricane of 1932 (cat 4) • Great Bahamas Hurricane of 1932 (cat 5) • Hurricane San Ciprián of 1932 (cat 4) • Great Cuba Hurricane of 1932 (cat 5)	Two Category 5 hurricanes; one in November (the latest such on record); four major hurricanes made landfall
1933	20	11	6	258.57	651	$86.6 million	"Tampico"	• Chesapeake–Potomac Hurricane of 1933 (cat 4) • Great Cuba-Brownsville Hurricane of 1933 (cat 5) • Treasure Coast Hurricane of 1933 (cat 4) • Outer Banks Hurricane of 1933 (cat 4) • Tampico Yucatán Hurricane of 1933 (cat 5)	Third most active season on record following very active 1932 season. Two Category 5 hurricanes. Five major hurricanes made landfall
1934	13	7	1	79.07	2,017	$4.26 million	Thirteen
1935	8	5	3	106.21	2,604	$12.5 million	"Labor Day"	• Great Labor Day Hurricane of 1935 (cat 5) • Cuba Hurricane of 1935 (cat 4)	The Labor Day hurricane is most intense landfalling tropical cyclone in the Atlantic known to date
1936	17	7	1	99.78	5	$1.23 million	Thirteen
1937	11	4	1	65.85	0	Unknown	Six
1938	9	4	2	77.58	~700	$290.3 million	"New England"	• Long Island Express Hurricane (cat 3)	Earliest starting season on record (January 3). Long Island express made landfall as a fast moving category 3.
1939	6	3	1	43.68	5	Unknown	Five

1940s

Year	Number of tropical storms	Number of hurricanes	Number of major hurricanes	ACE	Deaths	Damage USD	Strongest storm	Major landfall hurricanes	Notes
1940	9	6	0	67.79	101	$4.7 million	Four
1941	6	4	3	51.77	63	$10 million	"Florida"	• Texas Hurricane of 1941 (cat 3) • Nicaragua Hurricane of 1941 (cat 4) • Florida Hurricane of 1941 (cat 3)	3 major hurricanes made landfall this year
1942	11	4	1	62.49	17	$30.6 million	Three	• Matagorda Texas Hurricane of 1942 (cat 3)
1943	10	5	2	94.01	19	$17.2 million	Three		First year of Hurricane Hunters
1944	14	8	3	104.45	1,153	$202 million	"Great Atlantic"	• Great Atlantic Hurricane of 1944 (cat 4) • Cuba-Florida Hurricane of 1944 (cat 4)	Atlantic hurricane only category 2 at landfall
1945	11	5	2	63.42	80	$80 million	"Southeast Florida"	• Texas Hurricane of 1945 (cat 3) • Homestead Florida Hurricane of 1945 (cat 4)
1946	7	3	0	19.61	5	$5.2 million	Four
1947	10	5	2	88.49	94	$145.3 million	"Fort Lauderdale"	• Fort Lauderdale Hurricane of 1947 [George] (cat 4) • Cape Sable Hurricane of 1947 [King] (cat 2)	First year of Atlantic tropical cyclone naming.
1948	10	6	4	94.98	94	$30.9 million	"Florida"	• Florida Hurricane of 1948 [Easy] (cat 4) • Miami Hurricane of 1948 [Fox] (cat 3)
1949	16	7	3	96.45	3	$58.2 million	"Florida"	• Florida Hurricane of 1949 (cat 4) • Texas Hurricane of 1949 (cat 2)

1950s

Year	Number of tropical storms	Number of hurricanes	Number of major hurricanes	ACE	Deaths	Damage USD	Strongest storm	Retired names	Notes
1950	16	11	6	211.28	20	$37 million	Dog	None	Record-breaking 8 tropical storms in October
1951	12	8	3	126.33	257	$80 million	Easy	None
1952	11	5	2	69.08	607	$3.75 million	Fox	None	Includes the only known February tropical cyclone in the basin
1953	14	7	3	98.51	1	$6 million	Carol	None	First year of female names for storms. One of only 4 seasons to have both a preseason and postseason storm.
1954	16	7	3	110.88	1,069	$752 million	Hazel	Carol, Edna, Hazel	Includes Alice, one of only two storms in the basin to span two calendar years, tying for the latest storm in a season
1955	13	9	4	158.17	1,518	$1.2 billion	Janet	Connie, Diane, Ione, Janet
1956	12	4	1	56.67	76	$67.8 million	Betsy	None
1957	8	3	2	78.66	513	$152.5 million	Carrie	Audrey	One of only two seasons to feature a major hurricane in June.
1958	12	7	3	109.69	41	$12 million	Helene	None
1959	14	7	2	77.11	59	$23.3 million	Gracie	Gracie

1960s

Year	Number of tropical storms	Number of hurricanes	Number of major hurricanes	ACE	Deaths	Damage USD	Strongest storm	Retired names	Notes
1960	8	4	2	72.90	455	$442.34 million	Donna	Donna
1961	12	8	5	205.40	345	$392 million	Hattie	Carla, Hattie	Two Category 5 Hurricanes Lowest number of named storms for an extremely active season.
1962	7	4	0	35.57	39	>$4.88 million	Ella	None	No major hurricanes
1963	10	7	3	117.93	7,225	$589 million	Flora	Flora	The sixth deadliest hurricane on record
1964	13	7	5	169.77	261	$605 million	Cleo	Cleo, Dora, Hilda
1965	10	4	1	84.33	76	$1.45 billion	Betsy	Betsy	Current extent of the reanalysis project as of November 2019
1966	11	7	3	145.28	1,094	$410 million	Inez	Inez	One of only two seasons to feature a major hurricane in June. One named storm de-classified in post-analysis
1967	8	6	1	121.70	64	$217 million	Beulah	Beulah	First hurricane season in the modern satellite era features the highest number of tropical depressions in a season at the time, record later broken by 2005.
1968	8	4	0	45.07	10	$10 million	Gladys	None	The name "Edna" was retroactively retired, due to the storm in 1954. There was one subtropical storm with Category 1 hurricane strength. No major hurricanes, nor category 2 hurricanes.
1969	18	12	5	165.74	364	$1.7 billion	Camille	Camille	Fourth most active season on record tied with 2019. Tied for second most hurricanes in a season on record. Includes one subtropical storm.
Total	105	63	25		9,933	$5.82 billion		11 names

1970s

Year	Number of tropical storms	Number of hurricanes	Number of major hurricanes	ACE	Deaths	Damage USD	Strongest storm	Retired names	Notes
1970	11	5	2	40.18	71	$454 million	Celia	Celia	First season of a 24-year period of decreased activity in the Atlantic (-AMO)
1971	13	6	1	96.53	45	$213 million	Edith	None	Includes first documented Hurricane to cross Central America, Irene
1972	7	3	0	35.61	122	$2.1 billion	Betty	Agnes	Includes three subtropical storms No major hurricanes
1973	8	4	1	47.85	15	$18 million	Ellen	None	Includes one subtropical storm
1974	11	4	2	68.13	8,260+	$1.97 billion	Carmen	Carmen, Fifi	Includes four subtropical storms Fifi was the fourth deadliest hurricane on record
1975	9	6	3	76.06	80	$100 million	Gladys	Eloise	Includes one subtropical storm
1976	10	6	2	84.17	72	$100 million	Belle	None	Includes two subtropical storms
1977	6	5	1	25.32	10	$10 million	Anita	Anita	Features the strongest Atlantic hurricane to strike Mexico.
1978	12	5	2	63.22	37	$45 million	Greta	Greta	Includes the January subtropical storm in the Atlantic
1979	9	5	2	92.92	2,118	$4.3 billion	David	David, Frederic	First year for alternating male/female names. Includes one subtropical storm of Category One strength .
Total	96	49	16		10,830+	$9.31 billion		9 names

1980s

Year	Number of tropical cyclones	Number of tropical storms	Number of hurricanes	Number of major hurricanes	ACE	Deaths	Damage USD	Strongest storm	Retired names	Notes
1980	15	11	9	2	148.94	256	$1 billion	Allen	Allen	Includes the storm with the highest sustained winds attained so far in the Atlantic
1981	18	12	7	3	100.38	10	$45 million	Harvey	None
1982	9	6	2	1	31.50	141	$100 million	Debby	None	Includes one subtropical storm
1983	7	4	3	1	17.40	22	$2.6 billion	Alicia	Alicia	Least active hurricane season in the satellite era
1984	17	13	5	1	84.30	35	$66 million	Diana	None	Includes one subtropical storm
1985	13	11	7	3	87.98	241	$4.5 billion	Gloria	Elena, Gloria	Hurricane Kate struck Florida on November 21, the latest United States hurricane landfall
1986	10	6	4	0	35.79	70	$57 million	Earl	None	No major hurricanes
1987	14	7	3	1	34.36	10	$90 million	Emily	None
1988	19	12	5	3	102.99	550	$7 billion	Gilbert	Gilbert, Joan	Included strongest hurricane on record until 2005; first hurricane since 1978 to cross Central America
1989	15	11	7	2	135.13	112	$10.7 billion	Hugo	Hugo	Hurricane Hugo was the strongest tropical cyclone to ever strike South Carolina, and was, at the time, the costliest Atlantic hurricane on record, later broken by Andrew, and then Katrina, tied with Harvey.
Total	137	93	52	17		1,447	$26.2 billion	Gilbert	7 names

1990s

Year	Number of tropical cyclones	Number of tropical storms	Number of hurricanes	Number of major hurricanes	ACE	Deaths	Damage USD	Strongest storm	Retired names	Notes
1990	16	14	8	1	96.80	116	$150 million	Gustav	Diana, Klaus	No tropical storms or hurricanes made landfall in the United States
1991	12	8	4	2	35.54	30	$2.5 billion	Claudette	Bob
1992	9	7	4	1	76.22	66	$27 billion	Andrew	Andrew	Hurricane Andrew was the costliest U.S. hurricane until 2005. Includes one subtropical storm.
1993	10	8	4	1	38.67	274	$271 million	Emily	None
1994	12	7	3	0	32.02	1,184	$1.56 billion	Florence	None	Last season of a 24-year period of decreased activity in the Atlantic (-AMO) No major hurricanes
1995	21	19	11	5	227.10	115	$9.3 billion	Opal	Luis, Marilyn, Opal, Roxanne	Tied for fourth most active season on record First season of an ongoing period of increased activity in the Atlantic (+AMO)
1996	13	13	9	6	166.18	179	$3.8 billion	Edouard	Cesar, Fran, Hortense	Cesar was renamed Douglas after it crossed Central America. Highest number of major hurricanes at the time
1997	9	8	3	1	40.93	11	$110 million	Erika	None	Includes one subtropical storm
1998	14	14	10	3	181.77	12,000+	$12.2 billion	Mitch	Georges, Mitch	Four simultaneous hurricanes on September 26, the first time since 1893. Hurricane Mitch was the deadliest hurricane in over 200 years.
1999	16	12	8	5	176.53	465	$5.9 billion	Floyd	Floyd, Lenny	Most Category 4 hurricanes on record, later tied by 2005.
Total	132	110	64	25		14,440	$62.7 billion	Mitch	15 names

2000s

NOTE: In the following tables, all estimates of damage costs are expressed in contemporaneous US dollars (USD).

2000s

Year	Number of tropical cyclones	Number of tropical storms	Number of hurricanes	Number of major hurricanes	ACE	Deaths	Damage USD	Strongest storm	Retired names	Notes
2000	19	15	8	3	119.14	105	$1.296 billion	Keith	Keith	Includes one subtropical storm
2001	17	15	9	4	110.32	153	$11.44 billion	Michelle	Allison, Iris, Michelle	Included the first tropical storm in the Atlantic to be retired
2002	14	12	4	2	67.99	50	$2.47 billion	Isidore	Isidore, Lili	Record-tying 8 named storms formed in September
2003	21	16	7	3	176.84	93	$6.33 billion	Isabel	Fabian, Isabel, Juan	2 off-season storms
2004	17	15	9	6	226.88	3,260	$61.17 billion	Ivan	Charley, Frances, Ivan, Jeanne	Includes one subtropical storm Record-tying 8 named storms forming in August
2005	31	28	15	7	250.13	3,912	$171.755 billion	Wilma	Dennis, Katrina, Rita, Stan, Wilma	Second costliest hurricane season on record Season holds the records for most hurricanes, major hurricanes and Category 5's (4) Tied for most depressions with 2020 Most retired names First year to use the Greek alphabet later also used in 2020 Atlantic hurricane season Includes 1 subtropical storm and 1 subtropical depression
2006	10	10	5	2	78.54	14	$504.42 million	Gordon and Helene	None
2007	17	15	6	2	73.89	478	$3.42 billion	Dean	Dean, Felix, Noel	Includes one subtropical storm Two Category 5 Hurricanes that made landfall
2008	17	16	8	5	145.72	1,073	$49.42 billion	Ike	Gustav, Ike, Paloma	Tied for fifth most active season on record Only year on record in which a major hurricane existed in every month from July through November
2009	11	9	3	2	52.58	9	$58 million	Bill	None
Total	174	151	74	36		9,146	$307.87 billion	Wilma	24 names

2010s

Year	Number of tropical cyclones	Number of tropical storms	Number of hurricanes	Number of major hurricanes	ACE	Deaths	Damage USD	Strongest storm	Retired names	Notes
2010	21	19	12	5	165.48	392	$7.39 billion	Igor	Igor, Tomas	Tied for fourth most active season on record (with 1887, 1995, 2011 and 2012) Tied for second most hurricanes in a season on record with twelve (Alex, Danielle, Earl, Igor, Julia, Karl, Lisa, Otto, Paula, Richard, Shary, and Tomas) Record tying 8 named storms forming in September (Gaston through Nicole)
2011	20	19	7	4	126.30	112	$17.4 billion	Ophelia	Irene	Tied for fourth most active season on record (with 1887, 1995, 2010 and 2012)
2012	19	19	10	2	132.63	355	$72.32 billion	Sandy	Sandy	Tied for fourth most active season on record (with 1887, 1995, 2010 and 2011) Tied (with 2016 and 2020) for most active season before July (Alberto through Debby) Record tying eight named storms forming in August (Ernesto through Leslie [Leslie spanned most of September])
2013	15	14	2	0	36.12	54	$1.512 billion	Humberto	Ingrid	Includes one subtropical storm (Unnamed December SS [14L]) No major hurricanes, nor Category 2 hurricanes Tied (with 1982) for fewest hurricanes since 1930 (Humberto and Ingrid, a tie with Alberto and Debby in 1982)
2014	9	8	6	2	66.73	21	$371.6 million	Gonzalo	None
2015	12	11	4	2	62.69	89	$813.9 million	Joaquin	Erika, Joaquin
2016	16	15	7	4	141.25	736	≥ $17.49 billion	Matthew	Matthew, Otto	Earliest start since 1951 (January 12, since January 4) Record for earliest formation of 4th named storm (Danielle) Tied (with 2012 and 2020) for most active season before July (Alex through Danielle) Includes southernmost Category 5 on record, and the first since 2007 (Matthew, since Felix) First hurricane in 20 years to cross Central America into the Eastern Pacific basin (Otto)
2017	18	17	10	6	224.88	3,364	≥ $294.92 billion	Maria	Harvey, Irma, Maria, Nate	Costliest hurricane season on record (US$294.67 Billion) First April system (Arlene) since 2003 (Ana) Earliest Main Development Region named storm on record (Bret) First U.S. major hurricane landfall since Wilma in 2005 (Harvey) Highest rainfall produced by a tropical cyclone in the United States and its territories (Harvey) First-ever three Category 4 U.S. hurricane landfalls in a single season (Harvey, Irma, and Maria) Second season to feature multiple Category 5 landfalls after 2007 (Irma and Maria after Dean and Felix) Only one of four seasons to produce ten hurricanes in a row (Franklin through Ophelia) Only season on record with three hurricanes with an ACE value over 40 (Irma, Jose, and Maria) Most ACE produced in a single month in Atlantic basin (September, caused by Irma through Maria) Easternmost Major hurricane on record (Ophelia)
2018	16	15	8	2	132.58	172	≥ $50.205 billion	Michael	Florence, Michael	Includes a record seven storms that were subtropical at one point (Alberto, Beryl, Debby, Ernesto, Joyce, Leslie, and Oscar) Fourth consecutive season for a storm to develop before the official start (Alberto) The first season on record to have a Category 5 hurricane present in the Atlantic and Pacific Ocean (Michael, followed by Lane, Walaka, and Willa)
2019	20	18	6	3	132.20	119	≥ $11.588 billion	Dorian	TBD	Record fifth consecutive season for a storm to develop before the official start (Andrea). Includes two subtropical storms (Andrea and Rebekah). Dorian and Lorenzo in 2019 became two of six Category 5 storms in four years, the others being Matthew, Irma and Maria, and Michael, the most consecutive years with Category 5 storms on record. Features record-breaking easternmost Category 5 hurricane (Lorenzo).
Total	166	155	72	30		5,414	$474.01 billion	Maria	15 names

2020s

Year	Number of tropical cyclones	Number of tropical storms	Number of hurricanes	Number of major hurricanes	ACE	Deaths	Damage USD	Strongest storm	Retired names	Notes
2020	31	30	12	5	164.3	324	>$38.432 billion	Eta	TBD	Record-breaking 6th straight season with at least one pre-season storm. (Arthur and Bertha). Holds the record for the earliest formation date for third, fifth, and every storm after. Record-tying 2 named storms in May. Record-tying 5 named storms in July. Record-breaking 6 tropical depressions in July. Record-breaking 10 named storms in September. First season on record to have 9 or more tropical storms form before August. First season on record to have 13 or more tropical storms form before September. First season on record to have 18 or more tropical storms form before October. First season on record to have 27 or more tropical storms form before November. One of only two seasons to use the Greek Alphabet, with the other being 2005. Record-breaking number of named storms, with 30. Record-tying 31 depressions. Easternmost forming Atlantic tropical/subtropical cyclone on record. (Alpha) Record-breaking 11 landfalls in the United States. Record-breaking 5 landfalls in Louisiana.
Total	31	29	12	5		324	>$38.432 billion	Eta

Number of tropical storms and hurricanes per season

See also: Tropical cyclones and climate change

This bar chart shows the number of named storms and hurricanes per year from 1851–2020.

A 2011 study analyzing one of the main sources of hurricanes - the African easterly wave (AEW) - found that the change in AEWs is closely linked to increased activity of intense hurricanes in the North Atlantic. The synoptic concurrence of AEWs in driving the dynamics of the Sahel greening also appears to increase tropical cyclogenesis over the North Atlantic.

Tropical cyclone count adjusted for lack of observation prior to 1965.

See also

Parent topics

• Tropical cyclone
• List of environment topics
• List of tropical cyclones
• Lists of tropical cyclone names
• List of historical tropical cyclone names

Atlantic hurricane topics

• Atlantic hurricane
• Accumulated cyclone energy
• List of Atlantic hurricane records

Other tropical cyclone basins

• Pacific hurricane season
• Pacific typhoon season
• North Indian Ocean tropical cyclone season
• South-West Indian Ocean tropical cyclone season
• Australian region tropical cyclone season
• South Pacific tropical cyclone season
• South Atlantic tropical cyclone
• Mediterranean tropical-like cyclone