In the depths of what should be peak hurricane season, the Atlantic basin sits in an almost unnatural stillness — no hurricanes formed by mid-September 2026, a record stretching back to the dawn of satellite meteorology. The architect of this quiet is El Niño, a periodic warming of the equatorial Pacific that has thrown up a triple wall of atmospheric resistance against storm formation, even as ocean waters reach record temperatures worldwide. Yet nature rarely cancels its debts: the same pattern energizing the Pacific with relentless cyclones is storing heat in the Atlantic that may return as
Record-quiet Atlantic hurricane season as El Niño suppresses storm formation
Hurricane Lowell caused widespread power outages on Kauai; Hurricane Lala brought torrential rains and 80+ mph winds to Hawaii in August.