May’s Hurricane History - 2026
Bottom Line: This week is NOAA and the National Weather Service’s National Hurricane Preparedness Week. Each day includes a different theme aimed at increasing risk awareness and preparedness so that if we face the threat of a hurricane this year, fewer people will be left scrambling to stock up on supplies and potentially make bad decisions. While Florida’s Gulf Coast has seen more than its historic share of hurricanes over the past decade, Florida’s east coast has seen historic inactivity over the past twenty years.
Save 2022’s Hurricane Nicole, which made landfall at Vero Beach and was a weak category one on the approach, it’s now been over twenty years since a Hurricane made its way through Florida’s east coast with several close calls but no landfalls in South Florida. Historically, Southeast Florida has been subjected to an average of one hurricane landfall every 4-5 years – which highlights just how historic this absence of activity has been. This can lead to a certain degree of complacency when it comes to overall preparedness, which is a point of emphasis from NOAA to the state of Florida and local communities.
Southeast Florida’s historic run of hurricane avoidance isn’t the only positive streak that’s been in place in advance of this year’s hurricane season. It’s now been five years since we’ve had our first named storm in May.
While hurricane season doesn’t technically start until June, tropical activity in May had been common. In fact, the first named storm of the Atlantic Hurricane season for seven consecutive years through 2021 occurred in May.
And with the recent, favorable, change in atmospheric conditions as we’re shifting towards El Nino, which creates less conducive conditions for hurricane development, there’s reason for optimism heading into this year’s pre-season after last year’s thankfully uneventful season for Florida and the United States.
Historically, dating back to the original record keeping in 1851, we’ve averaged about one named storm every five years during May. That includes 28 tropical storms and four hurricanes. In fact, some years the season has kicked off even earlier. We’ve had named storms every month of the year, including two hurricanes in January and one in March.
While it’s not yet “officially” hurricane season, being prepared now essentially makes as much sense as being prepared in June. In fact, starting in 2019 during the streak of May storms, the National Hurricane Center began their daily tracking updates on May 15th. The storms don’t choose specific dates on calendars the way we do. Historically about 3% of named storms and hurricanes happen before hurricane season officially starts.