We are halfway through the 2026 Atlantic hurricane season, and it has not been very active so far. Let's dive into what has limited the activity, if it's common to see this and what to know about the rest of the season.
So far this season, there have only been five named storms. While this may seem less active, this is not out of the ordinary. At this point in 2024 and 2025, we only had six named storms as we approached the halfway mark. We also had more favorable climatological conditions during both of those years with a La Niña, along with much warmer than normal sea-surface temperatures.
Other WRAL Top Stories
The difference between this year and those two years? We had at least one hurricane up to this point. We have had zero hurricanes this season.
We will break the record for the longest start to the season without a hurricane. The record was held previously by Hurricane Gustav, which formed on Sept. 11, 2002. That record was tied by Humberto in 2013.
When looking at the factors that have limited tropical activity during the first half of the season over the past few years, two stand out: Saharan dust and dry air. Dust plumes move off the west coast of Africa from the Saharan desert into the main development region of the tropics. Tropical systems need plenty of tropical moisture, so this dry, dusty air really hinders storms from forming or strengthening.
Another factor that has affected this year specifically is El Niño. In fact, this could be one of the strongest El Niño's on record. El Niño is a global climate pattern that occurs when there are abnormally warm sea-surface temperatures in the equatorial regions of the Pacific. This leads to weaker trade winds in the Pacific. This pattern also impacts the Atlantic basin. In the Atlantic, there is stronger vertical wind shear. This shear breaks apart tropical systems or makes them harder to develop at all.
In the Pacific, with weaker trade winds and warmer sea-surface temperatures, it has been a very active season. August alone had seven named storms, including Hurricane Lala. Lala brought serious impacts to Hawaii in the form of flooding, mudslides and wind damage. Hurricane Lowell recently brought even more impacts.
For the rest of the season, it is still possible that we see an increase in activity in the Atlantic basin despite the ongoing, strong El Niño. One place to watch is the Gulf, where there is both less wind shear and very warm sea-surface temperatures.
We are still expecting to see below-average activity overall through the rest of the hurricane season.
Remember: it only takes one storm impacting your home to back it a bad hurricane season. Now is the time to already have a hurricane plan in place. The WRAL Severe Weather team updates a tropics story and video daily that can be found right here on jshu.net and in the WRAL Weather App.