There have been no hurricanes in the Atlantic — Yet! Making 2026 the quietest since satellite tracking began in 1966

https://notthebee.com/article/there-have-been-no-hurricanes-in-the-atlantic-yet-this-year-making-2026-the-quietest-since-satellite-tracking-began-in-1966?from_social=twitter

By Joel Abbott

It’s looking like a bad year for the climate-change departments in the media!

Translation: It’s quiet out there.

It is officially the quietest Atlantic hurricane season on record (year-to-date) in the satellite era terms of Accumulated Cyclone Energy (ACE), a metric that takes into account tropical cyclone frequency, intensity, and duration. With only 4.4 units generated as of September… pic.twitter.com/itFERIw12E
— Chris Martz (@ChrisMartzWX) September 6, 2026

Here’s a chart showing the years with the most and least hurricane activity:

From my home in the magical northern woods of Michigan, “hurricane” is a foreign concept.

But every year, I watch the South go berserk this time of year over two things: college football and storm preparations.

This year, we might not have very many hurricanes to write about!

At least, no hurricanes in the Atlantic…

Hurricane Lowell has flooded a hotel in Poipu, Hawaii, where CBS News’ @carterevans and his crew are staying. Here’s a look at the damage caused by the storm surge and high winds. pic.twitter.com/6UK4hOib5M
— CBS News (@CBSNews) September 8, 2026

There are currently THREE hurricanes in the Pacific Ocean: Lowell, Karina, and Marie. The warming El Niño trend in the Pacific is increasing storm activity there while the Atlantic remains calm.

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17 Comments

Alan

September 10, 2026 10:29 pm

South Texas just got hit with a tropical storm. Listening to the local media, you’d have thought it was the second coming of Katrina.

Coach Springer

Reply to Alan

September 11, 2026 7:43 am

A short trip from “If it bleeds, it leads” to “Make it bleed.”

Whetten Robert L

September 10, 2026 11:40 pm

How hard could it be to include the E.-Pacific?
neo-Norberto is the Season’s fourteenth-(#14!, letter N)-named T.S., Hawai–i Bound.
Nascent #15 (O) and then #16 (P) (Polo, Marco) are starting their spin-up stages.
One of these is bound to creep up the Gulf of California (Mar Cortés) into Sonora & the Mogollon-Country of Arizona.
One of these (Marco POLO?) is bound to cross the Sandwich Isles, the Date-Line, so to …
… catch the Japanese Current up into Aleutia and into the Bay of Alaska / Anchorage-AK.
———
Then, ~ +30-days from now, or by Columbus Day, 12th-of-October, may the 1954-redux (72 yrs of Good Luck) of {Carol+Edna} wash the sister-souls of Carolinas out to Sea; may coastal Long-Island / New England drown in the N.-Atlantic’s Fury.
All the way to the South Shore of Greenland, let it sweep CDN-Carney back to the UK, in order to enjoy his Streets-of-Blood British Blowout.

-15

ToldYouSo

Reply to Whetten Robert L

September 11, 2026 8:08 am

Errrr . . . Hawaii is located in the central Pacific Ocean, not the eastern Pacific.

Rud Istvan

September 11, 2026 12:15 am

The Atlantic result was predicted, but not to this extent. NOAA provides the simple explanation.
El Niño increases Caribbean and North Atlantic vertical wind shear, preventing hurricanes from organizing from tropical thunderstorms. A stronger El Niño will do this more strongly.

A second significant contributing factor was the much larger than normal amount of Saharan dust crossing the Atlantic this past summer, which was not predicted. That dust travels in drier Saharan origin lower altitude air volume and lessens the rate of surface water warming—both factors suppressing more than normal the thunderstorm formation that is a necessary hurricane precursor.

Derg

Reply to Rud Istvan

September 11, 2026 2:35 am

Didn’t NOAA predict near normal hurricane #s for this season?

Mark BLR

Reply to Derg

September 11, 2026 4:27 am

Didn’t NOAA predict near normal hurricane #s for this season?

No.

https://wattsupwiththat.com/2026/05/21/good-news-noaa-predicts-a-below-normal-2026-atlantic-hurricane-season/

Joseph Zorzin

Reply to Derg

September 11, 2026 4:27 am

When a predictor has no clue, just predict “near normal”. 🙂

Jim Gorman

Reply to Joseph Zorzin

September 11, 2026 5:17 am

Yep, just like rain. 50% chance, it rains I win, it doesn’t rain I win!

rhexenor

September 11, 2026 1:13 am

WUWT contributors really aren’t up on their climate science knowledge, are they? The BBC are already on this and have published an article on their website citing the strong El Nino as the reason for diminished hurricane activity!

I am not a climate scientist myself so can’t really comment, but I am assuming this this is BBC BS. Can anyone confirm or deny?

-6

SxyxS

Reply to rhexenor

September 11, 2026 1:49 am

I don’t think that anyone claims that BBC lies all the time and on the same scale as co2 is warming the planet –
but maybe I’m wrong and the (Hurricane-Activities will increase as result of AGW) – BBC used this article for another global warming spin “AGW caused Super El Nino made Hurricane go extinct”
Just as the (Hurricane-Activities will increase as result of AGW) – Washington Pest had to admitt a “Hurricane drought – and why it is a bad thing(never forget a negative spin, no matter how pervert it is)
just after they predicted in 2015 “Hurricanes unlike anything you have ever seen before”(the power of a millionth co2 and a billionth methane).

So what’s the point of your comment?
Adjusting propaganda alongside obvious realities is standard procedure.

And whatever happend to Mann’s bold storm predictions in this context.

rhexenor

Reply to SxyxS

September 11, 2026 6:41 am

The first part re. the BBC was just tongue-in-cheek as I hate that they immediately jump on anything climate related which may be construed as positive. The second was a genuine query regarding the influence of El Nino on hurricane activity.

-1

Leo Smith

Reply to rhexenor

September 11, 2026 1:59 am

The BS is blaming El Niño on ‘climate change’

In the end, someone – maybe Reform party – is going to turn round and say ‘You know what, we have spent trillions on ‘renewable’ energy, heat pumps and electric cars and its made absolutely no difference to climate. Why didn’t we spend it on the NHS instead?
The moment that meme gets started there is no turning back.
It short circuits the global warming argument. It doesn’t matter if its real, man made, or not, it is what it is and we will have to put up or shut up.

Joseph Zorzin

September 11, 2026 4:26 am

“There have been no hurricanes in the Atlantic”
There ya go- proves there’s climate change! /s

starzmom

Reply to Joseph Zorzin

September 11, 2026 6:02 am

This is climate change we can live with.

ToldYouSo

Reply to starzmom

September 11, 2026 8:19 am

“This is climate change we can live with.”

Maybe, maybe not.

Hurricanes produce massive amounts of clouds across the diameter(s) of their storm systems as they grow and move, thereby significantly increasing the albedo over their area and thus reducing the net solar energy absorbed by Earth. Is that good or bad?

Also,hurricanes typically produce heavy rainfalls over the areas underlying the cloud systems . . . that is the cycling of evaporated saltwater into condensed freshwater on an equally massive scale. Is that a good thing or a bad thing?

ToldYouSo

September 11, 2026 8:05 am

Let’s not overlook NOAA’s stated—with announced 70% confidence—forecast for the 2026 Atlantic hurricane season:
— a total of 8-14 named storms (winds of 39 mph or higher),
— of those, 3-6 forecast to become hurricanes (winds of 74 mph or higher), and
— of those, 1-3 to be major hurricanes (category 3, 4 or 5 with winds of 111 mph or higher).

And look at the the 2:1 to 3:1 range of those predictions . . . wide enough, as the saying goes, “to drive a truck through”.

These predictions vis-a-vis current absence of any hurricane yet at more than halfway through the 2026 Atlantic hurricane season. Hah!

And this situation despite NOAA spending more that $200 million so far since 2022 for its “upgraded” Weather and Climate Operational Supercomputing System (WCOSS) centers.

However, the “hit-or-miss” evidence seen to date in NOAA hurricane forecasts, comparing their predictions pre-2022 to those post-2022, show that NOAA would have been just fine forecasting with a $1,000 (or less expensive) laptop computer running an Excel spreadsheet. /sarc