2026 Atlantic hurricane season

Season overview

Isaias ended the longest wait for a first hurricane that satellites have ever watched. On September 21 the season had already become the first since 1914 to go that late without a hurricane, and the wait ran another 17 days, until Isaias was upgraded on October 8. Before satellites, hurricanes over open ocean could go unrecorded, so comparisons with older seasons are uncertain. Scientists link the delay to the very strong El Niño.

Forecasters expected a below-normal year for much of the summer. Outlooks were cut repeatedly from April through August as El Niño strengthened, and NOAA's August outlook gave less than a 5 percent chance of an above-average season. Wind shear in the Caribbean during July was the highest since records began in 1979.

By October 8, the archive held nine named storms, all of them tropical storms until Isaias. Accumulated cyclone energy was about 11.7 units through 00:00 UTC on October 8, before Isaias reached hurricane strength, a provisional figure. Running totals that include Isaias's first two days as a hurricane were near 16 units on October 9. Either figure is a small fraction of a typical full season.

Storm activity so far

The season opened on June 17 with Tropical Storm Arthur off the Texas coast. Tropical Storm Bertha formed in the northeastern Gulf of Mexico on July 19, a month later. August stayed quiet until its second half, when Tropical Storm Cristobal formed far east-northeast of Bermuda on August 12 and lasted about a day. Tropical Storm Dolly formed from a tropical wave in the central Atlantic on August 27.

September was the busiest month. Tropical Storm Edouard formed in the northern Gulf on August 31 and came ashore on September 1. Tropical Storm Fay formed on September 19 southwest of the Azores, after more than two weeks without a named storm. Tropical Storm Gonzalo formed near Cape Verde on September 25, and Tropical Storm Hanna formed southeast of Bermuda on September 28. Isaias developed in the Bay of Campeche as Tropical Depression Nine on October 6, was named on October 7 and reached hurricane strength on October 8.

Strongest storms so far

Isaias is the strongest storm so far. It became a hurricane at 03:30 UTC on October 8, and an operational estimate has it at Category 3 by 12:20 UTC on October 9. That Category 3 figure is provisional and may change in post-season analysis.

Before Isaias, Fay was the strongest storm, with a peak of 60 knots and a central pressure of 995 hPa on September 21. Fay was also the longest-lived, tracked in the archive from September 17 to September 29. It nearly became the season's first hurricane before wind shear weakened it. Every other storm so far peaked between 35 and 50 knots. These per-storm peaks come from provisional operational tracks and may change.

Landfalls and impacts

Arthur made landfall near Galveston, Texas, as a minimal tropical storm, with a peak of 40 knots. Its rain flooded roads and rivers in northern Mexico and Texas, and parts of Louisiana received close to 30 inches. Four deaths have been attributed to Arthur, and the insurance broker Arthur J. Gallagher & Co. estimated losses above US$1 billion as of July 2026. Both figures are early and may be revised.

Bertha made two Gulf Coast landfalls in July, the first in St. Bernard Parish, Louisiana, on July 22 with winds near 45 mph. Its heavy rain did not reach far inland, so storm surge and high surf caused more of its flooding than rain did. Edouard moved ashore near the Texas–Louisiana border on September 1 with gusts of 71 mph at Texas Point. A rain gauge on Little Pine Island Bayou recorded 17.71 inches, and flooding closed roads in Texas.

The disturbance that became Isaias, combined with a cold front, caused flooding, downed trees and power outages in the Mexican states of Tamaulipas and Veracruz. Away from the US coast, the remnants of Dolly dropped 111.9 mm of rain in six hours at Fonds-Saint-Denis, Martinique, and brought rain to Puerto Rico that eased a drought.

Records and context

The Weather Channel reports that 2026 is the first season of the satellite era with no hurricane in September. The previous latest first hurricanes of the satellite era came on September 11 in 2002 and 2013, and Isaias arrived 27 days after that date.

In the full record back to 1851, only the 1905 season matches Isaias's October 8 date for the latest first hurricane. Scientific American notes that without satellites a hurricane that never reached land could go unnoticed, so it is hard to say whether this is the latest first hurricane ever.