Hurricane season's peak has arrived, but the Atlantic has gone silent CNN Meteorologist Chris DolceSeptember 9, 2025 at 3:39 AM 0 There are no tropical systems active anywhere in the Atlantic basin as the peak of the season approaches. Satellite image captured Monday afternoon.
- - Hurricane season's peak has arrived, but the Atlantic has gone silent
CNN Meteorologist Chris DolceSeptember 9, 2025 at 3:39 AM
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There are no tropical systems active anywhere in the Atlantic basin as the peak of the season approaches. Satellite image captured Monday afternoon. - CSU-CIRA/RAMMB/NOAA
Atlantic hurricane season has hit a September speed bump. The season's peak will pass this week with no active storms for the first time in nearly a decade.
June is when the six-month-long season begins, but the true bulk of hurricane activity occurs from mid-August through September and into the first half of October. Right in the middle is September 10, the statistical high point of the season.
An active tropical storm or hurricane has roamed somewhere in the Atlantic on that date in roughly three-fourths of the 76 years tracked by NOAA.
The Atlantic is pitching a shut out on its official peak this year – a feat that last happened in 2016. The season's last storm was Tropical Storm Fernand, which fizzled out far from land on August 28.
The National Hurricane Center expects the Atlantic to remain quiet for at least the next week.
If that happens, it would be the farthest into September the Atlantic has gone without a named storm forming since 1992, according to the National Weather Service in New Orleans. Bonnie was the first September storm that year, forming on September 18.
September's special sauce
September is when the most real estate is open for hurricanes to form in the Atlantic thanks to a collision of weather ingredients.
September is when the largest amount of the Atlantic is ripe for tropical development, according to data provided by the National Hurricane Center. - CNN
The most basic building block is that water temperatures reach their warmest levels after basking in summer's heat.
Right now, much of the Atlantic basin has plenty of warmer-than-average water for prospective storms to tap into. These temperatures aren't at the record levels set in 2023 and 2024, but they're still warmer than they should be, driven higher in a world warming due to fossil fuel pollution.
Hurricane Erin took advantage of that warmth, becoming one of the fastest-strengthening Atlantic hurricanes on record when it hit Category 5 status in mid-August.
However, warm water is only one piece of the puzzle, as September is showing us right now.
The tropical Atlantic has been enveloped in dry, stable air so far this month, which is one of the main reasons it's unusually quiet. Dry air can squash a storm's ability to generate rainfall, and it's typically less abundant at this time of year than earlier in the season. An area of stormy weather the hurricane center tracked for development between Africa and the Caribbean last week succumbed to this hostile factor.
Wind shear – changes in wind speed and direction at different levels of the atmosphere – also tends to be lowest at this point. Shear can rip apart fully developed hurricanes and tropical storms, as well as systems still in formative stages, though it wasn't a huge obstacle for last week's failed system.
September is also when areas of showers and thunderstorms from western Africa make the trek west toward the Caribbean. These seeds for development, known as tropical waves, can spin-up storms when ingredients in the atmosphere and ocean cooperate.
How the season stacks up so far and what lies ahead
This season seems to be running closer to empty at a time of year it should be firing on all cylinders: Six named storms have formed so far, which is two fewer than the average by September 9, according to 1991 to 2020 data.
Most of those storms have been short-lived, with Hurricane Erin's more than 10-day-long journey being the exception. Erin remains the only hurricane so far this season, behind the typical pace of three forming by early September.
Of course, impacts matter more than any numbers and several storms this year have already had dangerous outcomes.
The leftover moisture from what once was Tropical Storm Barry helped fuel the devastating July 4 Texas floods. Just two days later, Tropical Storm Chantal triggered destructive and deadly floods in a narrow strip of North Carolina.
In August, Hurricane Erin brought heavy rain and strong winds to the northeast Caribbean before growing in size and churning up high surf and dangerous rip currents along the East Coast.
Hurricane Erin as a Category 5 northeast of the Caribbean islands on Aug. 16, 2025. - CIRA/NOAA
Looking forward, just over 50% of the entire hurricane season's activity occurs after the September 10 peak, according to one measure.
And we've seen a number of hurricanes pack a huge punch in the back end of recent seasons.
Last year, Hurricane Helene's devastating impacts played out from Florida to Georgia, western North Carolina and eastern Tennessee in late September. That was followed by Hurricane Milton's strike on the Florida Peninsula in early October.
In late September 2022, Category 4 Hurricane Ian delivered a catastrophic storm surge to southwest Florida. Destructive winds and flooding rain also pummeled the state's peninsula.
The bottom line is there's still a long way to go before the season ends. It's important to stay prepared, especially for those living in hurricane-prone areas.
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