Since 2000, Which Years Had Zero Hurricanes Hit the U.S.?

The hurricane season runs from June 1 to November 30. On May 21, NOAA issued its official forecast, calling for 8–14 named storms (winds of 39 mph or higher). Of these, 3–6 were forecast to become hurricanes (winds of 74 mph or higher), and one to three were expected to be major hurricanes (Category 3, 4, or 5, with winds of 111 mph or higher). The agency put the odds of this forecast proving accurate at 70%.

On August 6, however, NOAA revised that forecast, lowering the expected number of named storms to 7–13 and hurricanes to 2–6, with zero to two of those projected to become major hurricanes. Two tropical storms have already formed this season.

Warm surface water in the South Atlantic has fueled some of the most dangerous storms on record. Hot ocean and Gulf temperatures produced two Category 5 hurricanes in 2024 — Hurricane Beryl in the eastern Gulf of Mexico in July and Hurricane Milton in October — and those same conditions are in place again this year.

One factor that could keep the 2026 season quieter, though, traces back to Africa. The Weather Channel reports that Saharan dust storms are crossing the Atlantic, which can suppress tropical development as storms move west. Still, the season has months to go, and large storms remain possible — though, as was the case last year, many of them may stay out at sea.

Public attention tends to focus on storms that make landfall in the US, since those are the ones capable of causing billions of dollars in property damage and posing a fatal threat from wind and flooding. No hurricanes made US landfall in 2000, 2001, 2006, 2009, 2010, 2013, 2015, or 2025.

If the US isn’t hit by a major storm again this year, it will be unusually fortunate. A NOAA Office for Coastal Management study on the catastrophic 2024 season noted that Hurricane Helene — which made landfall near Perry, Florida, on September 26, 2024, with sustained winds of 140 mph — was the strongest hurricane on record to strike Florida’s Big Bend region. Helene killed more people than any hurricane since Katrina struck New Orleans in 2005.

The only named system to make US landfall in 2025 was Tropical Storm Chantal, meaning 2025 counts as a “no hurricane landfall” year — only a weaker tropical storm came ashore. Even so, the 2025 season produced 13 named storms and 5 hurricanes, both below average, along with three Category 5 hurricanes that stayed out at sea. One of them, Hurricane Melissa, devastated parts of Jamaica rather than the US.

In total, eight separate years this century have had no hurricane landfalls on the US mainland, spread unevenly across the period. The longest such gap was the decade between 2015 and 2025.