No Atlantic hurricanes by Sept. 12 would break a 60-year record
The Atlantic has never gone this late without a hurricane since modern satellite tracking began in 1966.
Bernie Rayno breaks down the latest on the tropics, including a record that may be broken in the coming days.
For decades, satellites have watched nearly every swirl of clouds over the Atlantic. In that modern era of storm tracking, the basin is nearing the record for the latest first hurricane of the season, and 2026 is on the verge of changing that. If no hurricane forms by Sept. 12, it will mark the latest date without a hurricane in the satellite era, which began in 1966.
Before the start of the satellite era, storms far from land and passing ships could have been missed, meaning that tropical statistics in prior years may be incomplete.
Looking back before 1966 yields two additional milestones from 1941. In the National Hurricane Center's original report, an unnamed storm in 1941 reached hurricane status on Sept. 19, the first of the season. However, reanalysis later determined that it didn't reach hurricane strength until Sept. 21. If there are no hurricanes this year before Sept. 22, the 2026 season will break that record as well.
If this year's Atlantic season has no hurricanes by Nov. 30, that will be only the third such season on record, preceded by 1914 and 1907.
With hurricane season peaking on average on Sept. 10, it's unusual not to have a hurricane spinning on that date, but it also happened in 2024 and 2025. If the basin still doesn't have a hurricane by the end of Sept. 10, that will make three years in a row, something that hasn't happened since the four-year streak in 2013-2016.
Labor Day 2026 passed with no hurricanes or tropical storms in the Atlantic for the third year in a row. The last time that happened was 1937-1939.
AccuWeather hurricane experts say a strengthening El Niño may limit opportunities for tropical storms to become hurricanes, setting the stage for this historic hurricane drought.
