The 2025 Atlantic hurricane season that ends Nov. 30 was one for the record books, but maybenot in the way anyone expectedwhen it began June 1.
For the first time in a decade, no hurricane made landfall in the United States, a welcome respite to beleaguered communities across the Southeast still recovering from earlier hurricanes. But that didn't mean it was a quiet season overall. The season with "striking contrasts" ultimately is endingpretty much within the rangespredicted by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, except fewer hurricanes overall than seasonal outlooks suggested.
Hurricane scientist Brian McNoldy summed it up as "a slightly above-average season with some strange characteristics."
The number of Category 5 storms was one of the most striking of those characteristics. Usually, only a small fraction of hurricanes ever become a Category 5 storm. This year, 23% of the named storms reached that status, with winds of 157 mph or more, often rapidly intensifying in warm ocean waters.
Storms of the 2025 hurricane season so far
In the mainland United States,Tropical Storm Chantal made landfall near Litchfield, South Carolina, on July 6 and moved over North Carolina and Virginia. Its flooding rains were blamed for at least six deaths.
The effects from hurricanes far offshore in the Atlantic, combined with other storms and seasonal high tides, pummeled beaches, especially along North Carolina's Outer Banks, where16 houses collapsed between Sept. 16and Oct. 28.
Jamaica and other islands in the Caribbean facedterrifying Hurricane Melissa in late October,which claimed at least 90 lives as it rapidly intensified and moved across Jamaica and Cuba and through the Bahamas. The hurricane with sustained winds of 185 mph at its center causedmassive destruction across western Jamaica.
NOAAhad forecast a 60% chance of an above-average season, with 13 to 19 named storms in the Atlantic basin. It predicted six to 10 hurricanes, and three to five major hurricanes.
The seasonwound up with 13 named storms and five hurricanes, but four major hurricanes, with winds of 111 mph or more. That's one less named storm and two fewer hurricanes than average, but one more major hurricane than average and slightly more than average overall cyclone energy.
Still,the conversation persists about how "quiet" the season wasin the United States considering the buzz at the beginning.
Something to be thankful for
After years in the National Weather Service in Florida, Brian LaMarre got used to people questioning why it seemed like a "quiet" season when a busy season was forecast, even if their area was just barely missed by a major storm, or when the Caribbean was getting repeated landfalls.
LaMarre,founder of Inspire Weather, said that even when a storm damages areas just a few miles away, if it doesn't happen in their neighborhood, people tend to think of it as a miss. "I always respond that's something we should all be thankful for," he said. That is certainly true in 2025.
If not for a persistent East Coast trough, this season's storms "would have either been coming into the Gulf or the southeastern United States," he said.
That trough created "anomalous counterclockwise steering winds around it," McNoldy said. That effectively directed "approaching hurricanes northward well before they had a chance to reach the U.S."
LaMarre describes meteorology and human forecasting as "trying to forecast a twig moving in a river."
"Within that river, there are large rocks that change the course and create circulations and mini-eddies in the water," he said. That's essentially what happens in the atmosphere, and the rocks are high-pressure systems.
Such subtle nuances are not predictable when the hurricane season forecasts arrive, he said. They are "short-term weather factors that fine-tune the (season) forecasts."
Many factors make the 2025 Atlantic season stand out, LaMarre said.
Among them: People now know what the "Fujiwhara effect" is, he said. The meteorological phenomenon occurs when two vortices, such as tropical cyclones, approach each other, then tend to orbit a common center point. Imelda and Humberto came within 465 miles of each other and started spinning around each other.
Melissa's intensity
Hurricane Melissa matched, set or nearly set several records, including:
With Erin and Humberto, the season produced the second-most Category 5 storms in the modern record, behind only 2005, which produced four.
Melissa tied the record for lowest central pressure at landfall. The only other storm with such low pressure at landfall was the Labor Day Hurricane of 1935 in the Florida Keys.
A gust measured about 700 feet above the ocean in Melissa's eyewall just before landfall in Jamaica – 252 mph – was the highest ever recorded by dropsonde, an instrument dropped from a Hurricane Hunter aircraft to measure the storm's environment.
Melissa's strongest sustained winds reached 185 mph, tying several other Atlantic hurricanes, and trailing only 1980's Allen for the strongest Atlantic storm on record.
The team at Colorado State University, which pioneered the seasonal hurricane forecast, listed thefollowing key points of the season, which ultimately produced fewer storms than the team initially projected in April:
The Accumulated Cyclone Energy, an index used by NOAA to describe overall hurricane activity, was 133, about 108% of average.
Of the past 10 seasons, nine have been either above normal or extremely active. This season wound up with more major hurricanes and more major hurricane days than average.
No named storms formed in the Atlantic from Aug. 24 to Sept. 16. The last time there were no known storms in that same period was 1992. Before that, the last time was in 1939.
Concluding Colorado State's forecast was a reminder that only five months remain until the team's first forecast for the 2026 Atlantic hurricane season, planned for April 9.
Dinah Voyles Pulver, a national correspondent for USA TODAY, has written about hurricanes, tornadoes and violent weather for more than 30 years. Reach her at dpulver@usatoday.com or @dinahvp on Bluesky or X or dinahvp.77 on Signal.
This article originally appeared on USA TODAY:2025 Atlantic hurricane season ends after a rash of Category 5 storms
