After a violent start, the Atlantic hurricane season has gone unusually quiet

Following dire forecasts for an above-normal hurricane season, conditions in the Atlantic have grown eerily calm in recent weeks. “There’s still a 60% to 70% chance that it will develop and be in place for the remainder of our hurricane season, so that still seems to be a factor that would indicate a more active season, along with near-record and record-high sea surface and oceanic heat content,” said Zierden, who is also a research associate at Florida State University. “That is still on the table as we enter the peak of the Atlantic hurricane season.” He’s not the only one who said the season might not hit the anticipated number of storms. “The hurricane season got off to an early and violent start with Hurricane Beryl, the earliest category-5 Atlantic hurricane on record,” NOAA Administrator Rick Spinrad said in the agency’s August update. “NOAA’s update to the hurricane seasonal outlook is an important reminder that the peak of hurricane season is right around the corner,” he said, “when historically the most significant impacts from hurricanes and tropical storms tend to occur.”