2025 Atlantic Hurricane Season Ends November 30

The 2025 Atlantic hurricane season wrapped up on November 30. Forecasters started out expecting a wild, above-average year, but things settled down and ended up pretty close to average.

What really stands out? None of the five hurricanes made landfall in the continental U.S. That hasn’t happened in ten years.

By NOAA’s standards, 2025 actually qualifies as an above-normal season. There were about as many named storms as usual, fewer hurricanes than average, and more major hurricanes than we typically see. The Accumulated Cyclone Energy (ACE), which adds up the total power and activity, lined up well with forecasts. Some other predictions missed the mark, thanks to storms popping up in unexpected patterns this year.

Hurricane Melissa made the biggest impact, slamming into Jamaica as a Category 5. Warm Atlantic waters and a cool neutral ENSO—edging toward weak La Niña—tilted things toward hurricane-friendly conditions, though the heart of the season turned out surprisingly quiet.

All told, the Atlantic churned out 13 named storms. Five of those became hurricanes, and four turned into major hurricanes with winds topping 111 mph. The historical averages? Fourteen named storms, seven hurricanes, three majors. So, the numbers didn’t stray too far from the norm.

But here’s the big question: why didn’t any hurricanes hit the U.S.?

For the first time since 2015, every coastal state got through the season without a hurricane making landfall. That doesn’t happen often, but it’s not unheard of—over the past 25 years, there have been seven seasons with no U.S. hurricane landfalls.

This year, a stubborn trough—basically, a stretch of low-pressure air—camped out over the continental U.S. for most of the season, right through the prime months of August to October. Phil Klotzbach, a senior research scientist at Colorado State, summed it up: “This trough along the Southeast coast stuck around for weeks during peak season. It steered any approaching storms northeast, away from the U.S., and the increased vertical wind shear in the region built a strong wall against landfalls.”

So, the U.S. dodged a bullet this time—not because there weren’t strong hurricanes, but because the atmosphere simply wouldn’t let them in.