Hurricane Central

June Isn't Too Soon for an Atlantic Basin Hurricane

At a Glance

Hurricanes in June happen about twice per decade.
They form closer to the United States than hurricanes later in the year.
Two Category 3 hurricanes have formed in June.

The first month of hurricane season can bring powerful hurricanes, not just tropical storms, to the southeastern United States.

(MORE: Hurricane Central | Latest Hurricane Season Outlook)

June hurricanes occur about once every five years on average, but most of the hurricanes that have formed in the first month of meteorological summer have directly impacted the United States.

Nearly every corner of the Atlantic coastline, from Brownsville to New England, has been impacted by a hurricane or tropical storm in June.

Tracks of June hurricanes since 1950. Reds and pinks indicated tracks where the system was a hurricane while orange tracks are tropical storm strength and yellow for tropical depressions.
(Data: NOAA Best Tracks Database)

Of the 12 June hurricanes that have happened since 1950, six made landfall as a hurricane on U.S. soil or nearby. Four more hurricanes made landfall in the U.S., but as a tropical storm or depression.

June hurricanes form and move closer to American coastlines due to the usual abundance of warm Gulf of Mexico and Caribbean waters and somewhat plentiful meteorological triggers that help spawn areas of low pressure in the region. Later in the season, these conditions expand farther from home.

(MORE: The Earliest U.S. Hurricane Landfalls Have Happened in June, or Earlier)

Two hurricanes – Alma in 1966 and Audrey in 1957 – became Category 3 hurricanes in the month of June.

Both of these hurricanes had winds of 125 mph at some point in their life cycle, but Audrey made landfall at peak intensity near the Texas/Louisana border as a strong Category 3.

Audrey roared ashore near the Texas and Louisiana border as a Category 3 hurricane, claiming at least 416 lives in the U.S., the seventh deadliest U.S. tropical cyclone on record. Only Hurricane Katrina (2005) claimed more lives since Audrey. A storm surge up to 12.4 feet was measured in southwest Louisiana. Add in waves as high as 20 feet on top of the storm surge, and you can see why Audrey was so deadly. According to David Roth from NOAA's Hydrometeorological Prediction Center, 90-95 percent of buildings in Cameron and Lower Vermillion Parishes were damaged beyond repair. Over 1.6 million acres of land were flooded by the storm surge in tandem with water backing up along rivers in southwest Louisiana. (Photo: Shel Hershorn/Hulton Archive/Getty Images) — An elderly woman in an apron and bonnet stands in front of a house, which was hit by a boat when Hurricane Audrey struck Louisiana.
(Getty)

Neither of these systems was the earliest hurricane to form in a season, but Alma is the earliest major hurricane to form. Alma became a Category 3 hurricane on June 8 near Key West, Florida.

The earliest hurricane formation took place on Jan. 4, 1938.

The most recent June hurricane was Hurricane Chris in 2012, but that system became a hurricane in the wide-open northern Atlantic.

(MORE: June Weather: What to Watch Out for and Look Forward to)

Where Do They Form and Track?

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 actually look closer to home.

(MORE: Fronts Can Mean Tropical Trouble in June)

The southeastern U.S. coast, Gulf of Mexico and western Caribbean are breeding grounds during the early part of the season. Any storms that form typically track north or northeastward, which brings the Gulf Coast and the Southeast coast in play for potential impacts.

The Cabo Verde season, when tropical storms and hurricanes tend to form more often in the central or eastern Atlantic Ocean from disturbances moving off the northwestern coast of Africa, generally doesn't begin until early August.