2022 Atlantic Hurricane Season Officially Begins Wednesday – Here's What Is Typical in June and July

The National Hurricane Center selected the June 1 to Nov. 30 period for the Atlantic hurricane season because it encompasses more than 97% of tropical cyclones in that basin. But storms can occasionally form before or after those dates, as we've seen in each of the years from 2015 to 2021.

Early in the season, we typically do not look at the main development region of the central and eastern Atlantic for tropical storms or hurricanes. We look closer to home.

The southeastern U.S. coast, the Gulf of Mexico and the western Caribbean Sea are breeding grounds for tropical cyclones in June. July is when we start to look a bit farther east because the region of the Atlantic near the Lesser Antilles can also become riper for development.

Since storms that form early in the year typically form closer to land, that can increase the chance of impacts along the Gulf and Southeast coasts of the U.S., as well as parts of the Caribbean.

Early-Season Activity Is Typically Slow

About 13% of the tropical storms from 1851 through 2020 in the Atlantic Basin have occurred in June or July. For comparison, August, September and October have accounted for 22%, 35% and 21% of all tropical storms on record, respectively.

On average, there's one June named storm in the Atlantic, Caribbean or Gulf of Mexico every one to two years. July has a slightly higher rate of occurrence, but it has still averaged less than one named storm per year since 1851.

Last year didn't follow that rule of thumb.

In a roughly two-week span from mid- to late June, short-lived tropical storms Bill and Danny formed off the Southeast coast, and Tropical Storm Claudette moved ashore in Louisiana.

In the month's final hours, Tropical Storm Elsa was born east of the Windward Islands. It would later strengthen to a hurricane, then move up the East Coast as a tropical storm in early July.

However, after Elsa fizzled, no other storms formed for the rest of July 2021.

It's Not Too Early for Major Impacts

Audrey was the strongest hurricane to make a U.S. landfall in June. It came ashore in Cameron Parish, Louisiana, at Category 4 intensity on June 27, 1957.

But it doesn't take an early-season hurricane in June to cause significant impacts.

Take Tropical Storm Allison in June 2001, for example. Allison made landfall as a low-end 50-mph tropical storm near Freeport, Texas, and quickly weakened to a tropical depression. Its remnants meandered and lingered for days, allowing an associated slow-moving rainband to flare up and unleash epic amounts of rainfall in the Houston metro area, which resulted in severe flooding.

Fifty years ago, Hurricane Agnes made a Florida landfall in June 1972, but its legacy is more strongly linked to its second wind as a tropical storm, when it curled and stalled over the Northeast, producing flooding rainfall in the interior of the region.

It's been 36 years since the U.S. last had a hurricane make landfall in June. That was Bonnie near High Island, Texas, in late June 1986.

Hanna (2020) and Barry (2019) are the most recent hurricanes to make a U.S. landfall in July.

Arthur (2014), Dolly (2008), Cindy (2005), Dennis (2005) and Claudette (2003) are the only other hurricanes to make a U.S. landfall in July this century.

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