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Hurricanes and Tropical Storms in June: Where Do They Form?

At a Glance

The Atlantic hurricane season officially begins in June, but activity is typically slow during the month.
Most systems form in the western Atlantic or Gulf of Mexico.

Tropical storm and hurricane activity in the Atlantic typically remains fairly light during the hurricane season's first month before things really heat up August into early October.

Just 5 percent of the tropical storms since 1851 in the Atlantic have occurred in June. For comparison, August, September and October have accounted for 23 percent, 35 percent and 21 percent of all tropical storms on record, respectively.

(MORE: Hurricane Central)

This graph shows the number of named storms and hurricanes that have formed in each month. The peak months of formation are August-October.

The National Hurricane Center selected the June 1-Nov. 30 dates for the hurricane season to encompass more than 97 percent of tropical cyclones. This year, the start of the season fell into the other 3 percent when Alberto formed at the end of May.

Here's what we have historically seen in the Atlantic basin during June.

How Many Storms Form in June?

On average, there's one June named storm in the Atlantic, Caribbean or Gulf of Mexico every one to two years. The last couple of years, however, have been an outlier from that statistic.

In June 2016, Bonnie, Colin and Danielle spun through the Atlantic basin as tropical storms. In June 2017, there were two tropical storms: Bret and Cindy.

Each red dot represents the origin point of a June named storm in the Atlantic (1950-2017).

Hurricanes are even rarer in June, with just 33 of them since 1851. That's an average of about one hurricane every five years in June.

Many years can go by without a single June hurricane. In 2010, Alex became the first June hurricane in 15 years, since Allison in 1995. Chris in 2012 is the most recent June hurricane.

There have been two major (Category 3 or stronger) June hurricanes since 1950: Category 4 Hurricane Audrey in 1957 and Category 3 Hurricane Alma in 1966.

It doesn't take a hurricane in June to cause significant impacts.

Take Tropical Storm Allison in June 2001. Allison made landfall as a low-end 50 mph tropical storm near Freeport, Texas, and quickly weakened to a tropical depression. The remnants of Allison meandered and lingered for days and then a slow-moving rainband associated with it flared up and unleashed epic amounts of rainfall in the Houston metro area resulting in severe flooding.

In June 1972, Hurricane Agnes made landfall in Florida, but its legacy is linked to its second wind as a tropical storm when it curled northwestward toward New York City, and stalled over the Northeast producing flooding rainfall in the interior Northeast.

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

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