Tropical Cyclone Climatology

General Climatology

The Atlantic hurricane season runs from June 1st to November 30th, and the Eastern Pacific hurricane season runs from May 15th to November 30th. The Atlantic basin includes the Atlantic Ocean, Caribbean Sea, and Gulf of Mexico. The Eastern Pacific basin extends to 140°W.

The following figures and tables describe the progress of a typical hurricane season in terms of the total number of tropical systems and hurricanes produced throughout the year in the Atlantic and East Pacific basins.

In the figures, curves represent the average cumulative production of all named tropical systems, all hurricanes, and those hurricanes which were Category 3 or stronger in those basins.

For example, by the beginning of September in an average year we would expect to have had four named systems, two of which would be hurricanes and one of which would be of category 3 or greater in strength.

The tables list benchmark dates when a given number of tropical systems, hurricanes, or category 3 storms should have been generated.

Figure 1.The average cumulative number of Atlantic systems per year, 1966-2009

Figure 2.The average cumulative number of Eastern Pacific systems per year, 1971-2009

Number of Tropical Cyclones per 100 Years

The official hurricane season for the Atlantic Basin (the Atlantic Ocean, the Caribbean Sea, and the Gulf of Mexico) is from 1 June to 30 November. As seen in the graph above, the peak of the season is from mid-August to late October. However, deadly hurricanes can occur anytime in the hurricane season.

Tropical Cyclone Return Periods

Hurricane return periods are the frequency at which a certain intensity or category of hurricane can be expected within 75 nm (86 statute miles) of a given location. In simpler terms, a return period of 20 years for a Category 3 or greater hurricane means that on average during the previous 100 years, a Category 3 or greater hurricane passed within 75 nm (86 miles) of that location about five times. We would then expect, on average, an additional five Category 3 or greater hurricanes within that radius over the next 100 years.

Our Return Periods webpage has both images and PDF documents that show the average return for Category 1, 2, 3, 4, and 5 hurricanes for selected coastal locations.

This data is produced by the National Hurricane Center Risk Analysis Program (HURISK) by Charles Neumann. The basic idea is that a population of tropical cyclones falling within the 65 nm (75 miles) circle is obtained from the best-track file. For that set of storms, the maximum wind within the circle is found. Then, a count is conducted to find how many systems had winds of 30-34 kt, 35-39 kt etc. Once the count is known, a function is used to "fit" the distribution. Since there are only a few intense tropical cyclones typically in the 100-year record for a particular site, the mathematical function helps to smooth this out and "fill in the holes" so to speak. The smooth function is then used to estimate the number of systems that would occur over a longer time period. We would expect that if we actually had a much longer historical record (several centuries) that the number of extreme events (i.e., category 5 hurricanes) observed would roughly match our estimates based on the shorter period of record.

Points of Origin by 10-Day Period

The figures below show the points of tropical cyclone genesis by 10-day periods during the hurricane season. These figures depict named storms only; no subtropical storms or unnamed storms. The source years include 1851-2009 for the Atlantic and 1949-2009 for the Eastern Pacific from the HURDAT database.

Climatological Areas of Origin and Typical Hurricane Tracks by Month

The figures below show the zones of origin and tracks for different months during the hurricane season. These figures only depict average conditions. Hurricanes can originate in different locations and travel much different paths from the average. Nonetheless, having a sense of the general pattern can give you a better picture of the average hurricane season for your area.

High Resolution History Maps

Figure 1a. All North Atlantic and Eastern North Pacific tropical cyclones
Download high resolution jpg (53 MB)

Figure 1b. All North Atlantic and Eastern North Pacific hurricanes
(at least Category 1 on the Saffir-Simpson Hurricane Scale)
Download high resolution jpg (50 MB)

Figure 1c. All North Atlantic and Eastern North Pacific major hurricanes
(at least Category 3 on the Saffir-Simpson Hurricane Scale)
Download high resolution jpg (45 MB)

Named Cyclones by Year

Figure 2. Bars depict number of named systems (open/yellow),
hurricanes (hatched/green), and category 3 or greater (solid/red), 1886-2004
Download hires image

U.S. Landfalling Hurricanes

Figure 3. 1950-2009 U.S. Landfalling Hurricanes (Courtesy of NCDC)

U.S. Hurricane Strikes

Figure 4. 1900-2009 U.S. Hurricane Strikes

Figure 5. 1900-2009 U.S. Hurricane Strikes - West Gulf

Figure 6. 1900-2009 U.S. Hurricane Strikes - East Gulf

Figure 7. 1900-2009 U.S. Hurricane Strikes - Southeast

Figure 8. 1900-2009 U.S. Hurricane Strikes - Northeast

Figure 9. 1900-2009 U.S. Major Hurricane Strikes

Figure 10. 1900-2009 U.S. Major Hurricane Strikes - West Gulf

Figure 11. 1900-2009 U.S. Major Hurricane Strikes - East Gulf

Figure 12. 1900-2009 U.S. Major Hurricane Strikes - Southeast

Figure 13. 1900-2009 U.S. Major Hurricane Strikes - Northeast

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