What's the most common day for a hurricane to make landfall in the U.S.?
Find out when the first and last calendar days featured a U.S. hurricane landfall. Plus, one day stands out with more U.S. hurricane landfalls than any other.
You have probably heard that Sept. 10 is the peak of Atlantic hurricane season, but what is the most common day for a hurricane landfall in the United States? Analysis by AccuWeather’s data science team, who also pinpointed the peak day of tornado season, uncovered some interesting hurricane landfall facts.
Based on NOAA data on hurricane landfalls on the East and Gulf coasts since 1850, Sept. 16 is the most likely calendar day for a hurricane to hit the United States.
Ten hurricanes have roared ashore from Texas to New York on that date since records began in 1850. Most recently, Hurricane Sally made landfall near Gulf Shores, Alabama, in 2020. Prior to that, Hurricane Ivan hit nearly the same location on Sept. 16, 2004, and Hurricane Floyd in 1999 was another storm on the same day. Those three storms combined did more than $50 billion (2024 USD) in damage.
Are there other days with multiple landfalls?
Sept. 10 and Sept. 13 also stand out, with eight and seven hurricane hits, respectively. Although this list includes only 326 storms that have struck the U.S., it's not surprising that the landfall dates are shortly after Sept. 10, which is the climatological peak of hurricane season considering all storms that are active in the Atlantic.
If we only look at data beyond 1950, which is considered the modern era of hurricanes where data is most reliable, four dates stand out with four landfalls each day: Aug. 27, Aug. 29, Sept. 10 and Sept. 16.
What was the earliest and latest hurricane to make landfall?
As the peak of the season approaches and declines, at least one hurricane has hit the U.S. every day between Aug. 10 and Oct. 25.
Atlantic hurricane season runs every year from June 1 through Nov. 30. The earliest hurricane to hit the U.S. was Hurricane Agnes on June 19, 1972, and the latest was Hurricane Kate on Nov. 21, 1985, when it made landfall in the Florida Panhandle.
Hurricane Ivan approaching landfall on Sept. 15, 2004 (NASA)
Notes about this study
This data relies primarily on Coordinated Universal Time (UTC), and calculations may differ in local time zones. For storms with multiple landfalls, only the first is considered. Hurricanes that may have produced effects on land but did not make landfall are not included in the numbers above, but if they were, it would not affect the ranking of landfalling days since 1850.
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