The Atlantic has now gone longer without a hurricane than in any season since satellites began tracking storms.

Today, September 11, matches the latest date on record for a first Atlantic hurricane.

Shaloy Smikle tells us more.

The current record for the latest forming first hurricane of the season is held by Gustav in 2002 and matched by Humberto in 2013.

Chief Meteorologist for Fox News, Kendra Kent, says with nothing in the basin at hurricane strength and forecasters seeing no development over the next seven days, the 2026 season is on course to pass both.

In an average season, the first hurricane arrives by July 27.

Five named storms have formed since June: Arthur, Bertha, Cristobal, Dolly and Edouard.

But not one has reached hurricane strength.

The lack of hurricane-strength storms is the result of a strong El Niño.

This drives up vertical wind shear across the tropical Atlantic.

That shear tears at a developing storm’s structure before it can organise, and it comes alongside dry, sinking air over the stretches of ocean where Atlantic hurricanes normally form.

Forecasters say the current event is strengthening and could become one of the strongest El Niños on record by early next year, which would keep conditions hostile for storm formation through what is left of this season.

But a quiet season is not a finished one.

The Atlantic season runs to November 30, and it was late October last year when Hurricane Melissa came ashore on Jamaica’s west coast as a category five system.

The last Atlantic season to end without a single hurricane was in 1914.