At a Glance

A total of 73 hurricanes have made landfall in the mainland U.S. since 1966.Those hurricanes got their start in many different parts of the Atlantic.

When a hurricane threatens the United States,landfall is often the focal point of attention 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 somewhere else in the Atlantic Basin.

Plotted on the graphic below is the origin of every hurricane that has made landfallalong the mainland U.S. coastline since the use of satellites began in 1966.

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

As you can see, the tropical depressions orstorms that would eventually strengthen into hurricanes prior to making landfall in the U.S.had their starts everywhere from near Africa's coast westward to the Caribbean and Gulf of Mexico.

The dot farthest away from the U.S. on the lower 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 opposite extreme is Hurricane Humberto, which made landfallnear High Island, Texas, on Sept. 13, 2007 as a Category 1. That landfall occurred it was first deemed a tropical depression in the northwestern Gulf of Mexico.

Digging even deeper, we can examineall theorigin points by the month landfall occurred in the U.S. In total, 73 hurricanes have made landfall in the U.S. since 1966, and about 82 percent (60 total) of those hurricane landfallsoccurred in August, September or October.

August and September U.S. hurricane landfalls hog the largest swath 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.

September has had many of the U.S. hurricane landfalls from depressions and storms that originatedin the tropical Atlantic between Africa and the eastern Caribbean. A handful of hurricanes that made a U.S. landfall in August can also trace their roots to that swath of the Atlantic. Those two months are historically active in this part of the Atlantic Basin, which is sometimes called the main development region.

Hurricanes that made landfall in the U.S. in June, July and October have mostly originated in the Caribbean or Gulf of Mexico, based on climatological history.