2025 Marks Rare Hurricane-Free September for the U.S.

For the first time in a decade, the United States has made it through September without a hurricane making landfall. Meteorologists said the 2025 Atlantic hurricane season has had several close calls but no direct hits.

Hurricane Erin, a powerful August storm, traveled roughly 200 miles off the coast of North Carolina before turning out to sea.

Hurricane Imelda headed towards the southeast in September but was deflected from the coast by nearby Hurricane Humberto in an unusual meteorological event known as the Fujiwhara Effect.

So far this year, the only U.S. landfall has been Tropical Storm Chantal, which dumped more than a foot of rain in parts of North Carolina over the Independence Day holiday weekend. AccuWeather estimates total damage and economic loss from Chantal to be $4 billion to $6 billion.

The last time the U.S. went an entire September without a hurricane landfall was in 2015. Historically, seven out of eight previous instances of this pattern were ones in which no hurricane reached land anywhere in the U.S. for the remainder of the season. Despite that, meteorologists caution not to predict that quiet will reign. Sea surface temperatures across the Atlantic remain above normal, and upper-level wind shear, one of the main impediments to hurricane formation, is beginning to decline. Predictors now expect 13 to 16 named storms when the season winds down in November.

Tallahassee's most recent direct hit came from Hurricane Hermine in 2016, a Category 1 near St. Marks, which toppled trees and left most of Leon County without power. Two years later, Hurricane Michael swept across the eastern Gulf as a Category 5, destroying Mexico Beach and causing devastation across the Panhandle. Although Tallahassee avoided the storm's eye, winds toppled trees, tore roofs apart, and left tens of thousands without power. Hurricane Idalia passed close to the Big Bend region in 2023, with hurricane-force gusts, downed power cables, and flooding at coastal towns.

Late-season hurricanes have struck Florida in the past. In 1985, Hurricane Kate made landfall just west of Mexico Beach and moved into Gadsden County, the last hurricane to strike the Panhandle directly late in the year. Meteorologists say the same kind of systems can still develop in the Gulf of Mexico or western Caribbean during October and November, when water temperatures remain warm enough to permit rapid intensification.

Tallahassee has experienced a quiet year, but the city's hurricane history suggests such quiet periods can end suddenly. With nearly two months remaining in the 2025 season, local meteorologists continue to urge caution, a reminder many have remembered for a long time since they remember Hermine's power outages, Michael's destruction, or Idalia's wind and surge along the Big Bend coast.