2013 hurricane season will end as a snoozer

JACKSONVILLE, Fla. – The 2013 Atlantic hurricane season through November 1st is the quietest it has been since 1994 and will likely end in a sleepy slumber just like it began.

There is 31 days left in the season and the odds that another storm, much less a hurricane, forming are about as good as the Florida/Georgia game being called due to blizzard-like conditions. 

Recommended Videos



Statistically speaking, we have 80 percent of the season behind us. We've had twelve named storms and two hurricanes; both of which were category 1 hurricanes. A season absent of category 2-5 hurricanes hasn't been witnessed since 1968 when only three category 1 hurricanes formed.

According to meteorologist Dr. Ryan Maue, who provided the chart above, says that this is the lowest Atlantic accumulated cyclone energy since 1994. This season is far more typical of the slow decades of the 1970s and 80s versus the hyper-active years of the 1990s and early 2000s.

Records from the National Hurricane Center show that this year's Atlantic hurricane season is only the fifth recorded (in the satellite era) not to spawn a major hurricane joining the seasons of 1994, 1986, 1972 and 1968.

Meteorologist Bill Read, former director of the National Hurricane Center says the reason for the slow season has probably more to do with bad timing than lack of dynamics or waves. "Every time we've had a healthy wave come off the continent of Africa, it has been snuffed out by dry air or Saharan dust."

While there is still time to salvage the season, it would take a hurricane of unprecedented strength and longevity to bump up our numbers for the 2013 season. While November is considered to be part of the hurricane season, it has only given birth to seven major hurricanes since 1851, this according to senior meteorologist Stu Ostro. Not to mention given the trend for the 2013 season, it is almost safe to say there is little to worry about through next June.