The National Hurricane Center gives the Atlantic hurricane season as June 1 to November 30, with its peak around September 10 and most activity between mid-August and mid-October; the eastern Pacific season runs from May 15 to November 30. Those dates describe when storms form anywhere in the basin. This guide asks a narrower question with the site's own data: in which month did each storm first come within 75 miles of a US city?
The count covers 737 tropical systems from the HURDAT2 record since 1851 — 716 from the Atlantic and 21 from the eastern and central Pacific — each placed in the month of its first pass within range of a city on this site. 371 of them were at hurricane strength at their closest point to at least one city.
| Month | All systems | Share | Hurricanes at closest pass | Atlantic | Pacific |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| January | 0 | 0.0% | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| February | 1 | 0.1% | 0 | 1 | 0 |
| March | 0 | 0.0% | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| April | 0 | 0.0% | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| May | 12 | 1.6% | 1 | 12 | 0 |
| June | 76 | 10.3% | 22 | 76 | 0 |
| July | 75 | 10.2% | 32 | 69 | 6 |
| August | 168 | 22.8% | 100 | 161 | 7 |
| September | 242 | 32.8% | 138 | 237 | 5 |
| October | 143 | 19.4% | 70 | 141 | 2 |
| November | 18 | 2.4% | 7 | 17 | 1 |
| December | 2 | 0.3% | 1 | 2 | 0 |
A storm counts once, in the month of its first pass within 75 miles of a US city; "hurricanes" are storms at hurricane strength at their closest point to at least one city.
August to October carries the season
September is the busiest month, with 242 systems (33% of the total). August, September and October together account for 553 systems (75%) and 308 of the 371 hurricanes (83%). June and July bring 151 systems between them, but a smaller share of them are hurricanes: 36%, against 57% in September.
The Pacific systems that reached US cities peak in August, with 7 of the 21; 18 of the 21 first came near a city in Hawaii.
The strongest storms come later
Major hurricanes — Category 3 or stronger at their closest pass to a city — are even more concentrated. Of the 124 in the record, 55 first came near a US city in September, and 118 (95%) in August through October. 5 came in June or July.
By calendar date, ignoring the year, the earliest first pass by a storm at hurricane strength is Unnamed 1908 storm on May 29, 1908, and the latest is Unnamed 1925 storm on December 1, 1925. The single calendar date with the most first passes across all years is August 22, with 14 storms — a coincidence of the calendar rather than a pattern, but it falls, as most of them do, in the late-summer peak.
Storms outside the official season
15 Atlantic systems in the record first came near a US city outside the June-to-November season: 12 in May, 2 in December and 1 between January and April. The earliest dates in the calendar year and the latest are in the tables below; the season dates are a convention for when nearly all storms happen, not a limit.
| Date | Storm | City |
|---|---|---|
| February 3, 1952 | Unnamed 1952 storm | Key West, FL |
| May 10, 2015 | Ana 2015 | Awendaw, SC |
| May 14, 1916 | Unnamed 1916 storm | Key West, FL |
| May 18, 2020 | Arthur 2020 | Swansboro, NC |
| May 23, 1976 | Unnamed 1976 storm | Port St Joe, FL |
| Date | Storm | City |
|---|---|---|
| December 11, 2007 | Olga 2007 | Vieques, PR |
| December 1, 1925 | Unnamed 1925 storm | Marco Island, FL |
| November 28, 1878 | Unnamed 1878 storm | Vieques, PR |
| November 27, 1888 | Unnamed 1888 storm | Chilmark, MA |
| November 24, 1982 | Iwa 1982 | Kekaha, HI |
How to read these counts
The month is that of the first pass in range of a city, so a storm that came ashore on September 30 and was still crossing the country on October 2 counts in September. Times in HURDAT2 are in UTC, which can move a pass late in the evening of the last day of a month into the next month. Early decades are less complete: a storm that stayed offshore before reconnaissance aircraft and satellites could be missing altogether, which matters most for the months when storms tend to stay at sea.
Each city page on this site lists its own storms with dates, and the hurricane index lists every storm by decade. For forecasts and current storms, see the National Hurricane Center.