Hurricane season has been a bit of a snooze.

That’s not a complaint.

We’re now past the historical peak of Atlantic hurricane activity, and the 2026 season has yet to produce a single hurricane. We haven’t seen frantic Weather Channel correspondents getting blown sideways on beaches or a flurry of spaghetti models monopolizing local newscasts.

For the millions of people and businesses along the Atlantic and Gulf coasts, that’s objectively good news.

It’s also getting a little weird.

Where are the hurricanes?

As of September 16, the Atlantic has produced five named tropical storms and zero hurricanes. The National Hurricane Center’s seasonal summary shows activity running well below the 1991–2020 average, with accumulated cyclone energy, a measure of overall storm activity, 94% below normal.

In fact, 2026 is experiencing the slowest start to an Atlantic hurricane season since routine satellite coverage began in 1966. And, according to The New York Times, not since 1941 has the Atlantic gone this far into a season without a hurricane. That’s particularly remarkable considering the second week of September typically represents the climatological peak of hurricane activity.

Much of the explanation appears to be sitting thousands of miles away in the Pacific.

A strengthening El Niño is creating conditions that are unusually hostile to Atlantic hurricanes. El Niño tends to increase vertical wind shear over the Atlantic, essentially introducing changes in wind speed and direction and disrupting tropical systems before they organize. This year, dry air and sinking air have also helped suppress development.

None of this was entirely unexpected. NOAA entered the season predicting a 55% chance of below-normal activity, largely because of the expected development of El Niño. By August, forecasters had increased those odds to 75% as conditions became increasingly unfavorable for hurricane development.

But “below normal” and “no hurricanes by mid-September” are two very different things.

When quiet becomes complacency

For industry leaders and organizations along the Atlantic and Gulf coasts, an unusually quiet season can create a strange preparedness problem.

When weeks pass without the emergency everyone spent months preparing for, maintaining vigilance becomes harder. Hurricane plans sit untouched, employees stop paying as much attention to forecasts, emergency messages begin to feel less urgent, and the temptation grows to mentally declare hurricane season over before the calendar does.

It isn’t over.

Atlantic hurricane season officially continues through November 30, and meteorologists caution that the unusually quiet start shouldn’t be interpreted as an all-clear. Even in a season dominated by El Niño, conditions can become temporarily favorable enough for hurricanes to develop, particularly later in the season and closer to the Gulf and Caribbean.

NOAA National Weather Service Director Ken Graham made a similar point before the season began: “Although El Niño’s impact in the Atlantic Basin can often suppress hurricane development, there is still uncertainty in how each season will unfold.”

And there’s another important distinction hidden inside this quiet season: A tropical system doesn’t need to become a hurricane to become dangerous.

Tropical Storm Edouard proved that earlier this month. The storm made landfall in southwestern Louisiana with sustained winds of 60 mph and gusts topping 70 mph near the Texas border, despite never reaching hurricane strength.

Why you should care: Preparedness is easy to appreciate immediately after something goes wrong. Maintaining it while nothing is happening is harder.

For safety, security, and business continuity teams, that’s the bigger lesson of this bizarre hurricane season. Emergency plans shouldn’t depend on how threatening the last few weeks have felt. A quiet stretch is an opportunity to review employee contact information, exercise communication procedures, test backup channels, revisit evacuation plans, and identify gaps while there’s still time to fix them.

Because hurricane season isn’t over. Neither is the work of being ready.

Every week, AlertMedia creates brand-new content to help safety, security, and business continuity professionals keep their people and organizations safe. Check out this week’s featured content:

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