Hurricane Season Is Over Early, but El Niño Is Not Done With Us Yet

In a typical year, the Atlantic hurricane season runs from June to the end of November. But 2026 has been anything but a typical year.

In fact, the meteorologists at AccuWeather have announced that tropical activity for the 2026 Atlantic hurricane season is over, three weeks before the official end of the season on Nov. 30.

The reason?

"El Niño has played a significant role in limiting tropical activity across the Atlantic," said AccuWeather lead hurricane expert Alex DaSilva.

"While tropical storms can still develop this late in the season, the weather patterns we're seeing give us confidence that the United States will avoid additional direct tropical impacts this year. It's an unusually quiet conclusion to a season that defied expectations and broke a 121-year-old hurricane record.”

But while the hurricane season might be bowing out early, the country still needs to prepare itself for the coming winter months in a big way.

A quiet season

AccuWeather originally forecasted 11 to 16 named storms for the season last spring, but once El Niño arrived and strengthened much earlier in the year than usual, the forecast dropped to eight to 11 named storms and three to four hurricanes.

To date, only 10 named storms came to fruition, the fewest since 2014, when there were only eight storms. Only one reached hurricane status, with Hurricane Isaias making a destructive Category 2 landfall on the Florida Panhandle in October.

It was the first time since 1925 that there was only one hurricane in the entire season.

That’s not to say that the season wasn’t destructive. The first storm of the season, Tropical Storm Arthur, dumped more than 20 inches of rain in some spots across the Gulf in June and caused an estimated $4 billion to $6 billion in total damage and economic loss, according to a preliminary estimate from experts at AccuWeather.

(NOAA)

(NOAA)

Hurricanes out, but wet weather remains

While the hurricane season is over, homeowners across the country still have to continue with a deluge of wet weather on the way.

Again, all thanks to the Super El Niño still churning away.

Notably, the El Niño could influence winter weather across the United States, bringing warmer-than-average temperatures to Northern states and wetter-than-average conditions to the South and East Coast, according to NOAA’s U.S. Winter Outlook.

Wetter-than-average conditions are most likely across the southern tier, from the Southwest to the Southeast, and along the East Coast. But if the temperatures stay up, the likelihood of snow is slim.

But even without the snow, the storms could be significant for this area this year.

“As we know from decades of observations, a very strong El Nino will likely bring a southward and eastward shift to the jet stream for the contiguous U.S., which tilts the odds toward stormier weather across the South,” said Ken Graham, director of NOAA’s National Weather Service.

“While higher chances of rain and snow may bring relief to drought-afflicted areas, too much precipitation on dry soil can fuel destructive flash floods and mudslides. Now is the time for communities and individuals to plan ahead for the upcoming winter.”

Meanwhile, more snow than average is favored across parts of the Intermountain West, the Plains, and the Appalachians this winter because of El Niño's active storm track, according to The Wall Street Journal.

In fact, most models that were reviewed showed above-average snowfall across the Plains, from South Dakota to northern Texas, and a swath of the central and southern Appalachians.