At a Glance

Through mid-September, the 2022 hurricane season has been quieter than usual.A number of years have been starkly quiet through the entire season.That includes one season in the 2010s. That doesn't mean there haven't been impactful storms.

The 2022 Atlantic hurricane season may seem quiet, so far, but there have been other entire seasons that have been even less active.

D​espite a recent flare-up of activity, 2022 continues to lag an average season's pace.

As of mid-September, just five named storms have formed, two of which became hurricanes. That's about four storms and two hurricanes behind , according to the National Hurricane Center.

This seems especially stunning after the of the past few hurricane seasons with .

Here's a look at the least active hurricane seasons in the era weather satellites have monitored the Atlantic Basin using several different metrics.

Fewest Storms

A​n average hurricane season from 1991 through 2020 produced 14 storms.

I​n 1983, only four storms formed the entire season, all from mid-August through the end of September.

That adds up to only a six-week hurricane season.

W​e'll come back to 1983 for an important asterisk to this apparent dud of a hurricane season later.

Tracks of the four named storms of the 1983 Atlantic hurricane season.

(Data: NOAA/NHC)

Fewest Hurricanes

Over the past 30 years, seven hurricanes have formed in an average season.

A pair of years only managed two hurricanes each.

I​n 1982, only six storms formed, two of which became hurricanes.

The other year this happened was 2013, when only two of 14 storms managed to strengthen to hurricanes.

Tracks of the 2013 Atlantic hurricane season, only two of which became hurricanes.

(Data: NOAA/NHC)

Fewest Major Hurricanes

On average, three hurricanes strengthen at least to Category 3 status each season, what meteorologists sometimes refer to as major hurricanes.

But five years failed to produce a single hurricane of Category 3 wind intensity or stronger.

Those years were 2013, 1994, 1986, 1972 and 1968.

Least Activity

A​nother measure of activity meteorologists use called the ACE index sums up how long the storms and hurricanes last and how strong they become, instead of just counting them.

A season with a large number of long-lived, intense hurricanes will have high ACE. Those seasons with a small number of short-lived storms will have a low ACE.

T​he five least active hurricane seasons by ACE are shown in the graph below. The aforementioned 1983 season with four storms was the quietest. All of those years had only 14 to 28 percent of average activity.

The five least active Atlantic hurricane seasons in the satellite era, by ACE index, compared to the most recent 30-year average ACE.

(Data: Phil Klotzbach/CSU; Graph: Infogram)

By ACE index, 2022 was the quietest start to a hurricane season through the end of August .

Not a single named storm formed in August for the and only the third time since 1950.

Signatures of Quiet Seasons

M​any of these quiet hurricane seasons happened during either a developing or ongoing El Niño.

T​his periodic warming of the eastern Pacific Ocean near the equator tends to produce higher wind shear in the Caribbean Sea and adjacent areas of the Atlantic Basin. Wind shear rips apart tropical systems.

H​owever in , dry, sinking air and wind shear were among the culprits for a much less active season than expected, despite the lack of El Niño.

The first half of the 2022 season has had some similar suppressing factors as 2013, so far. That's despite a robust La Niña, the opposite of El Niño, which typically lessens wind shear and leads to a busier season.

Water Vapor Satellite, NHC Development Chance

(Areas of dry air in the atmosphere are shown in orange and red on the satellite image. More moist air is shown by the brighter white, pink, blue and green colors. The possible area(s) of tropical development according to the latest National Hurricane Center outlook are shown by polygon(s), color-coded by the chance of development over the next five days. An "X" indicates the location of a current disturbance.)

I​t Only Takes One

As we've said repeatedly over the years, dangerous, impactful storms and hurricanes can and have happened even in the most quiet of hurricane seasons.

T​he poster child for this was Hurricane Alicia, which went from a tropical depression in the northern Gulf of Mexico to a landfalling Category 3 hurricane near Galveston, Texas, in mid-August 1983.

Infrared satellite image of Hurricane Alicia on Aug. 18, 1983 as it made landfall in southeast Texas.

(NOAA)

Wind gusts over 100 mph shattered windows in downtown Houston skyscrapers. Nine feet of storm surge pushed onto the Gulf side of Galveston Island.

Alicia caused $2 billion ($8.8 billion in 2022 dollars) in damage in the U.S. and claimed 21 lives.

O​ne of 2013's two hurricanes, Ingrid, teamed up with eastern Pacific Hurricane Manuel to trigger deadly flooding from torrential rain in Mexico.

R​egardless of how quiet 2022 has been so far, that doesn't mean one storm couldn't strike.

T​his is why we urge you to remain prepared during this and every hurricane season, regardless of how active it is. Information about hurricane preparedness can be found .

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