November is the final month of Atlantic hurricane season; here's what to expect
One named storm typically forms in the Atlantic every other November, while a hurricane develops in November roughly every 3 years. The hurricane season officially runs from June 1 to Nov. 30 each year.
Here is why hurricane season runs from June to November
Hurricane season is long, why?
We've reached the final month of the Atlantic hurricane season, which officially runs from June 1 to Nov. 30 each year. But even though the season is winding down, there can still be tropical storms and even hurricanes in November.
Martin is the most recent tropical cyclone to roam the Atlantic Basin in November after developing over the central North Atlantic on the first day of the 2022 season's final month.
Not including Martin, 34 named storms formed in the Atlantic during November in records spanning 1950 through 2021. Of those, 21 intensified into hurricanes with winds of at least 74 mph.
That works out to an average of about one named storm in the Atlantic every other November, with a hurricane in November roughly every three years.
Typical areas to watch in November
This map shows where tropical cyclone activity tends to occur during November. The data are shown as the combined number of tropical depressions, tropical storms and hurricanes whose centers pass within 125 miles of a point on the map during a 100-year period. The analysis is based on data from the 72-year period from 1950 to 2021 but normalized to 100 years.
(FOX Weather)
The most likely area to find a tropical storm or hurricane in November is in the western Caribbean Sea off the coast of Central America.
However, we can also see tropical cyclones elsewhere in the Caribbean, in the southern and eastern Gulf of Mexico, off the southeastern U.S. coast or over the open waters of the central Atlantic Ocean east and southeast of Bermuda and northeast of Puerto Rico.
WHERE TROPICAL STORMS AND HURRICANES TYPICALLY OCCUR DURING EACH MONTH OF ATLANTIC HURRICANE SEASON
Recent November tropical storms and hurricanes
While no tropical storms or hurricanes developed in the Atlantic Basin in November 2021, it was a much different story in 2020.
Eta made two landfalls in Florida in November 2020, both as a tropical storm. This was after it produced catastrophic flooding in parts of Central America as a Category 4 hurricane.
Later that month, Iota rapidly intensified and also struck Central America as a Category 4 hurricane. Many of the same areas in Central America that were devastated by Hurricane Eta less than two weeks earlier were struck with catastrophic flooding once again by Hurricane Iota.
CENTRAL AMERICA IS PRONE TO HURRICANE DISASTERS
A group of people on a car drive through a mud-covered street with debris caused by Hurricane Iota's flooding on Nov. 21, 2020, in San Pedro Sula, Honduras.
(Yoseph Amaya / Getty Images)
In 2016, Hurricane Otto became the latest-in-season landfalling hurricane in the Atlantic Basin after it crashed ashore in far southern Nicaragua, only about a dozen miles north of the Costa Rica border, on Nov. 24 – that year's Thanksgiving holiday for the U.S. Otto's landfall location was also farther south than any Atlantic Basin hurricane on record.
Meanwhile, Hurricane Kate in 1985 is the U.S.'s latest-in-season landfalling hurricane. Kate crashed ashore at Category 2 intensity on the evening of Nov. 21 near Mexico Beach, Florida.