# The hurricane season that never showed up

> El Nino is strangling Atlantic storms before they form, and 2026 just broke a record for quiet.
- Title: The hurricane season that never showed up · The Banner
- Summary: El Nino is strangling Atlantic storms before they form, and 2026 just broke a record for quiet. A record-quiet Atlantic is El Nino doing its job, not a…
- Keywords: hurricanes, el nino, weather, atlantic, climate, news, local, hurricane, season, never, showed, The Banner
- Source: The Banner — https://thebanner.com/community/climate-environment/weather/atlantic-hurricane-season-el-nino-impact-EK7DSVMQ75BY5NDXPWCQFSNEEU
- Author: Seth Borenstein, Associated Press
- Published: 2026-09-13T12:50:34.872+00:00
- Read time: 2 min
- Topics: hurricanes, el nino, weather, atlantic, climate, news, local
## A record-quiet Atlantic
No Atlantic hurricane has formed in 2026, and none are expected for at least another week. This should be the peak of the season.

> The Atlantic is quiet, record quiet, this hurricane season
## The record it just broke
On Saturday the season set a satellite-era record for going longest without a storm hitting 74 mph. Only five weak, short-lived tropical storms have spun up.
## Seven percent of normal
By the measure that combines storm count, strength and duration, Atlantic activity sits at a post-1950 low. It is running at 7% of normal for mid-September.

> We haven't even had anything really even close to a hurricane.
## A triple whammy
Winds decapitate any storm that tries to organize, dry air starves it, and sinking air stomps it flat. All three are classic El Nino fingerprints.

> It's really staggering, just how inhospitable the Atlantic is to anything that could form a tropical cyclone right now
## Wind shear tearing storms apart
Between Africa and the Caribbean, shear runs about 45 mph above what a tropical cyclone can survive. Researchers call that level unheard of.

> Their heads are cut off before they even have a chance
## Warm water is not enough
The world's oceans have been record hot for 100 days, which normally fuels storms. El Nino is overpowering that heat anyway.
## The gap that matters
Kerry Emanuel's work says the air-to-water temperature difference drives storms, not water temperature alone. El Nino heated the atmosphere faster than the Atlantic could catch up.
## The Pacific is throwing a party
El Nino feeds Pacific storms with moist air and low shear. The eastern Pacific has logged 16 named storms and the central Pacific 20, with Hawaii hit twice.

> It's just a party out there, one right after the other in the eastern Pacific
## Watch the Gulf anyway
Shear has stayed low over the Gulf of Mexico, where storms tend to fire later in the season. 1992 started slow, then delivered Hurricane Andrew.
## Next season could roar
As El Nino winds down, the warm Atlantic water will stick around without the shear holding storms back. That raises the odds of a busy 2027.

> I don't think anyone really foresaw it being this quiet. This is quite remarkable.
## Key takeaway

A record-quiet Atlantic is El Nino doing its job, not a season-long all clear. The Gulf is still open, and next year looks busy.