What (and When) is Hurricane Season?

A hurricane season is a distinct time of year when tropical cyclones (tropical depressions, tropical storms, and hurricanes) usually develop. Whenever we mention hurricane season here in the U.S. we're usually referring to the Atlantic Hurricane Season, whose storms most commonly affect us, but ours isn't the only season there is...

Hurricane Seasons Around the World

Besides the Atlantic hurricane season, 6 others exist:

• the Eastern Pacific hurricane season
• the Northwest Pacific typhoon season
• the North Indian cyclone season
• the Southwest Indian cyclone season
• the Australian/Southeast Indian cyclone season
• the Australian/Southwest Pacific cyclone season  

While each of the above basins has its own particular seasonal patterns of tropical cyclone activity, activity tends to peak worldwide in late summer. May is typically the least active month, and September, the most active.

Hurricane Season Predictions

Several months before the season starts, several well-known groups of meteorologists make predictions (complete with guesstimates of the number of named storms, hurricanes, and major hurricanes) about how active the upcoming season will be.

Hurricane forecasts are usually issued twice: initially in April or May in advance of the June season start, then an update in August, just before the historical September peak of hurricane season.

• The NOAA releases its initial outlook the week prior to the June 1 season start.
• Colorado State University's Department of Atmospheric Sciences has been making and publicizing their tropical forecasts since 1984.
• Tropical Storm Risk (TSR) (a consortium of insurance, risk management, and climate forecasting experts based out of University College London in the UK), first introduced its tropical cyclone forecasts in the late 90s and early 00s.
• The Weather Channel is considered a relative newbie to the hurricane forecast arena.