Quiet 2025 Hurricane Season Offers Rare Respite for US Coasts

In a surprising turn of events, the 2025 Atlantic hurricane season has remained remarkably quiet as of mid-October. For the first time in 10 years, no hurricane has made landfall in the United States through the end of September.

Experts say this is due to a combination of factors working against hurricane formation and movement. The atmosphere has been drier due to an influx of Saharan air, while a high-pressure system in the Gulf of Mexico has made conditions unfavorable for storms. Additionally, a shift in the North Atlantic oscillation, a key weather pattern, has pushed hurricanes away from the US East Coast and Gulf regions.

"There are storms," says Jill Trepanier, a hurricane climatologist at Louisiana State University. "They're just not making landfall." Three major hurricanes, Erin, Gabrielle, and Humberto, did intensify to Category 4 or 5 strength, but they remained over the open Atlantic.

While the lack of major hurricane impacts may seem like good news, experts caution that the threat has not passed. The Atlantic typically begins to cool in late October, but the Caribbean and Gulf of Mexico remain warmer, leaving the possibility for "homegrown" late-season storms forming close to the coastline, as seen with Hurricane Milton last year.

"We're getting into the tail end of the season now, so the probability is really going down," says Charles Konrad of the Southeast Regional Climate Center. "But we can't rule it out."