Is Hurricane Season Over After Michael?

The simple answer is no.

Hurricane season runs through Nov. 30, but sometimes activity does wane in the final month or so of hurricane season. 

It is not out of the question to see another tropical cyclone or two before the year ends, but knowing whether those will hit land or not is not a question that can be answered until the system has formed. 

On average, two named storms have developed in the Atlantic basin after Oct. 18, according to the National Hurricane Center. Most of these systems develop in the western or central Caribbean Sea or in the western Atlantic Ocean and then move north or northeast. 

A few factors will shape how the rest of hurricane season develops.

El Niño is slowly developing in the equatorial Pacific with many atmospheric effects already being felt. Typically, the number of tropical storms that form in the Atlantic is fewer with El Niño, due to increased shearing winds that rip apart systems that attempt to develop and those that are already developed.

The last weeks of hurricane season follows this idea, too. On average, less than one named storm forms in this period in seasons when El Niño is fully developed.

Another factor that can change how many tropical cyclones at the end of the season is how many cold fronts sweep across the South. These cold fronts can eventually spawn tropical or subtropical cyclones in the Gulf of Mexico or the western Atlantic as the boundaries lose steam and convection percolates near an area of low pressure along the old front.

Don't sleep on the end of the season even as overall activity quiets down some.

There have been some notable hurricanes that have made a U.S. landfall this late in the season. 

Hurricane Sandy in 2012 is the most recent. Sandy made landfall on the East Coast as a strong low pressure system just days before Halloween with catastrophic storm surge in New York and New Jersey. 

Before Michael, the benchmark hurricane for many in the Florida panhandle was Hurricane Kate, which made landfall in November 1985.

Kate came ashore with 11 feet of storm surge and wind gusts of more than 100 mph at Cape San Blas. Severe power outages and crop and seafood losses were experienced across the region. 

(MORE: Five Unforgettable November Hurricanes)

Kate was also the latest-in-season hurricane landfall on record in U.S. history, coming ashore at Mexico Beach, Florida, on Nov. 21, a week before Thanksgiving.

The latest a tropical cyclone developed is Dec. 30 when Tropical Storm Zeta formed at the end of the hyperactive 2005 hurricane season.