The 2026 Atlantic hurricane season officially began Monday with no tropical cyclone formation expected across the basin, marking the third consecutive year that the season has started without a trackable system during the preseason.
Satellite imagery across much of the Atlantic showed widespread dry air and strong upper-level winds, making the atmosphere too hostile for tropical development.
Typically, the first named storm in the Atlantic forms around June 20, and the first hurricane does not form until August.
While the official season runs from June 1 through Nov. 30, tropical activity tends to be limited during the first few months as atmospheric conditions gradually become more conducive to development.
This season, one of the greatest influences on hurricane activity is expected to be a developing El Niño pattern over the Pacific Ocean.
As the El Niño event is expected to strengthen through the summer and into the fall, forecasters believe it will reshape weather conditions across both the Atlantic and Pacific basins.
The state of the El Niño-Southern Oscillation typically produces significant wind shear across the Atlantic basin, which helps disrupt thunderstorm organization and tropical cyclone development.
Additionally, water temperatures across portions of the tropical Atlantic are running cooler than during recent hurricane seasons, which can reduce cyclone development.
As a result of these hostile conditions, forecasters widely expect the Atlantic basin to experience below-average tropical cyclone activity this season.
NOAA recently unveiled its seasonal outlook, which calls for eight to 14 named storms, including three to six hurricanes and one to three major hurricanes.
Despite expectations for reduced activity, forecasters stress that seasonal outlooks do not indicate where landfalls will occur.
The first tropical storm of the season will be named Arthur, which usually doesn't form until around June 20.
The Pacific basin, however, appears poised for an extremely active year, with areas of disturbed weather that could become Amanda and Boris over the next week.
Typically, most cyclones in the eastern Pacific do not pose a direct threat to land, but with certain steering patterns, Hawaii, Mexico and parts of Central America can find themselves within the forecast cone.
