At a Glance

A total of 83 hurricanes have made landfall in the mainland U.S. since 1966.Those hurricanes got their start in many different parts of the Atlantic.

Landfalling hurricanes in the continental United States have had their beginnings anywhere from thousands of miles away to right on our nation's doorstep.

When a hurricane threatens the U.S.,landfall is often the focus because it's where the worst impacts are imminent. The seed for a hurricanetogrow, however, was planted when it first became a tropical depression or storm elsewhere in the Atlantic Basin.

Illustrating this is the map below, which shows where every future landfalling mainland U.S. hurricane first became a tropical depression or storm since the use of satellites began in 1966. It encompasses a vast area that stretches from near Africa's coast to the Caribbean and Gulf of Mexico.

(Plotted is where every hurricane that made landfall in the mainland U.S. originally developed into a depression or storm since 1966.)

The dot farthest away from the U.S. on the bottom-right of the map is where Hurricane Hugo was bornas a tropical depression on Sept. 10, 1989. It made a long journey west-northwest and struck South Carolina as a .

The long track of Hugo in 1989.

The opposite extreme is Hurricane Humberto, which made landfallnear High Island, Texas, on Sept. 13, 2007, as a Category 1. That landfall occurred just in the northwestern Gulf of Mexico.

Humberto on radar from when it formed into a tropical storm (far left) to when it made landfall 19 hours later (far right).

(NOAA)

Digging even deeper, we can examineall theorigin points by the month landfall occurred in the U.S. In total, 83 hurricanes have made landfall in the U.S. since 1966, and about 82% (68 total) of those hurricane landfallsoccurred in August, September or October.

August and September U.S. hurricane landfalls command the largest area of the Atlantic Basin with regards to where they first originated as a tropical depression orstorm. They've started everywhere from the Gulf of Mexico to near Africa's western coast.

Storms earlier and later in the season often form in the Gulf of Mexico and Caribbean, so that's where a majority of landfalling U.S. hurricanes originated in June, July and October.

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