Checking in on the strange 2025 Atlantic hurricane season

We're more than halfway done with this year's Atlantic hurricane season and...well, it's been a weird one so far.

The ocean basin has produced 11 named storms through Oct. 12. This year's storms have pretty neatly fallen into two groups so far—they've either struggled mightily, or absolutely reached for the stars. 

Out of those 11 named storms, four grew into hurricanes. Erin and Humberto reached category five intensity, Gabrielle was a solid category four, and Imelda reached category two strength.

A favorable atmospheric setup has kept all but one of those storms away from the continental United States. Tropical Storm Chantal made landfall in South Carolina with 60 mph winds during the overnight hours on Sunday, July 6. Otherwise, nine out of the ten remaining storms recurved out into the open Atlantic.

We haven't even seen any tropical systems in the Caribbean by this point in the season, a testament to the strength and placement of ridges of high pressure over the central Atlantic. If these ridges were stronger or farther west, the waves that grew into storms like Erin and Humberto may have travelled farther south into the Caribbean instead.

How does this season stack up compared to normal?

An average Atlantic hurricane season produced 14 named storms, seven hurricanes, and three major hurricanes. We're pretty much on track to see a near-normal season, assuming we see another storm or two over the next couple of weeks. 

Even this year's Accumulated Cyclone Energy (ACE) is near normal. ACE is a metric meteorologists use to gauge the true intensity of a hurricane season, accounting for the strength and longevity of a season's storms. A stronger storm that lasts longer will produce higher ACE values than a weak, short-lived system.

So far this season, we've seen an ACE value of 96.2, which was 92.4% of normal for Oct. 11. Erin, Humberto, and Gabrielle account for more than 80% of that energy, which really throws it back to how every storm this season has either struggled or excelled.

The season isn't over yet. Hurricane season runs through Nov. 30, and we've seen plenty of high-end storms form through the end of October and into November. We'll have to start looking closer to home—in the Caribbean and Gulf of Mexico—for storm formation as we enter these final weeks of the season. 

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