When Is Hurricane Season?

Hurricanes occur in the Atlantic Ocean and the Caribbean Sea. Certainly, there are other areas of tropical storm activity, but those storms carry other names. The tropical storms that occur in the Pacific Ocean are called typhoons and in the Indian Ocean and southwestern Pacific, they are referred to as cyclones.

Officially, the U.S. hurricane season is defined as June 1st to November 30th of each year. The ending date has been progressively moving later in the month of November from 2008 into 2009 and 2010.

These dates have been set to include 97 percent of all major hurricane days and 79 percent of all tropical storm days. As a guess, these dates are fairly reliable but there are always exceptions to any rule. Hurricanes have hit in the months of May and December in the past.

The early part of the hurricane season is usually mild but hurricane activity begins to pick up by the mid part of August. The peak part of the season is usually September.

Your location may influence possible months for experiencing a hurricane. Some experts say that the western Caribbean experiences most of its activity and intensity during the period of mid-September through until the end of November. If however, you are located along the Atlantic coast your peak is a bit earlier in the season, mainly between mid-August through mid-September.

Hurricane Locations

Hurricanes begin in the Equatorial waters of the Atlantic Ocean, and generally move in towards the Caribbean Sea, making landfall between the Gulf of Mexico coast and the Florida peninsula. Each year, two main meterological projects are used to make predictions as to the severity of the Hurricane season. The projects are independently conducted by Colorado State University and by the Atlantic Oceanographic and Meteorological Laboratory. The predictions for the 2009 hurricane season and for the 2010 season made by both organizations have been closely aligned.

Additional research is constantly underway to better understand these meteorological events. For example, Professor Ben Kirtman, at University of Miami, is examining the relationship between El Nino and Atlantic Hurricanes. The predictions made about the hurricane season are broken down into three classifications. The first is in regards to how many named storms are predicted. These are further classified as to how many will develop into hurricanes and the final classification is how many of the hurricanes will develop into major hurricanes.

Seasons Around the World

A list of the dates of hurricane seasons in oceans all over the globe are as follows:

• North Atlantic Ocean (June 1 - November 30) The active period will run from about mid-August until the end of October. Places that may be affected include: Bermuda, the Caribbean, the eastern and Gulf coasts of the US, Central America, eastern Mexico, and eastern Canada.
• Eastern North Pacific Ocean (May 15 - November 30) This is considered to be the second most active region for hurricanes. These tropical cyclones generally move into the open eastern Pacific Ocean but may also affect western Mexico and even Hawaii.
• Northwest Pacific Ocean   (Typhoon season is all year round). This is considered to be the most active basin. Almost all typhoons will form between the months of July to November. The storms that form in this region may affect Southeast Asia, Philippines, Taiwan, Japan, and China. 
• Arabian Sea (April 1 - December 30) This basin will have twice the maximum because of the monsoons that are moving through at two separate times during the year. The maximum number of hurricanes will take place from mid-April to May and from mid-September to mid-December
• Southwest Pacific Ocean (October 15 - May 1) These storms may affect eastern Australia.
• Southeast Indian Ocean (October 15 – May) These storms may affect northern and western Australia. The basin will have twice the maximum in mid-January, and mid-February through early March.
• Southwest Indian Ocean (October 15 - May 15) These storms may affect southeastern Africa and Madagascar. Double maximum usually occurs in mid-January and mid-February through early March.