The Atlantic Is Nearing a Record for Its Latest-Ever First Hurricane

Is history going to be made this year in the Atlantic? As of September 7, no hurricanes have formed in this part of the world's oceans, putting the season on track to make the record books.

Atlantic Basin on Pace to See Latest First Hurricane

A supercharged El Niño climate phase is being blamed for the quiet Atlantic hurricane season thus far. How calm has it been? An average tropical weather season in this basin produces 14 named storms. Of this number, seven become hurricanes, and three of those go on to become major hurricanes categorized as a Category 3 or higher.

With the climatological peak of the season happening at the end of this week, the basin has only seen five named storms. All of these have remained at tropical storm strength, meaning the Atlantic is still waiting on its first hurricane.

As is typical, the powerful El Niño that has developed this year is putting a lid on tropical development in the Atlantic while the Eastern and Central Pacific basins have seen abnormally high volumes of activity. Conversely, La Niña weather patterns generally result in more activity in the Atlantic and quieter times in the Pacific.  

Going back to the beginning of the satellite era of tracking storms in 1966, the latest first hurricanes of the Atlantic spun up between September 2 and September 11. With no anticipated action in the Atlantic over the next few days, forecasters are becoming more certain that 2026 will go down in history.