August and September passed without a single Atlantic hurricane, thanks in part to a powerful El Niño. Forecasters are now raising the prospect that the season could conclude with zero Atlantic hurricanes.

“We are witnessing one of the most extraordinary Atlantic hurricane seasons in modern history,” said Alex DaSilva, lead hurricane expert at AccuWeather. “There is an increasingly likely scenario in which the Atlantic season ends without a single hurricane for the first time in more than a century.” The last time was in 1914, and before that 1907.

The possibility of a hurricane-free season is made all the more remarkable by the fact that early weather records are highly suspect, as weather watchers would have failed to count hurricanes that formed over remote parts of the Atlantic. It is very possible that 1914 and 1907 produced uncounted hurricanes. Reliable data dates back only to 1966, the year the U.S. began routine satellite weather monitoring.

Why has this year been so unusually quiet? It is not for a lack of the ocean heat that fuels the formation of hurricanes. Sea surface temperatures in the Atlantic are the second warmest on record. But a Super El Niño, which scientists say has been intensified by warming, is driving powerful westerly winds. These winds are thwarting the formation of hurricanes in the Atlantic, according to John Morales, a meteorologist at the NBC affiliate in Miami.

“Plus, the air over the Atlantic basin has been mostly sinking,” he said. “Clouds don’t form in sinking air,” much less the clusters of thunderstorms that eventually give rise to cyclones. At the same time, experts say, dry air has also stymied the formation of hurricanes.

The Atlantic hurricane season typically peaks in late August and early September, with diminished odds of a hurricane thereafter. Of the three previous Super El Niños, only one produced an Atlantic hurricane after October 1.

“Don’t tune out. Stay informed,” said Morales. “But fingers crossed that the rest of the 2026 Atlantic hurricane season stays as dead as a doornail.”