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Overdue for hurricanes: San DiegoThe June 1 start date to the Atlantic hurricane season has been in place for decades. The National Hurricane Center selected the dates of the beginning and end of the hurricane season to "encompass over 97 percent of tropical activity".
The 2012 season fell into that other three percent with the formation of both Alberto and Beryl during the month of May.
Let's examine the details of what we typically look for in the tropics during June.
Generally a Slow Start
Percentage of named storms per month.
Though June 1 is the start date of the season, tropical activity in the Atlantic typically remains fairly light. Of course there are several exceptions to the rule, but as you can see in the bar graph at the left this "slowness" of activity usually continues well into and through the month of July before tropical activity typically begins to "heat up" during the peak of the season from August into early October.
To look at it in terms of numbers, the percentage of named storms in June and July combined (14 percent) is less than August alone (27 percent).
On average, we see around one named storm in the Atlantic, Caribbean or Gulf of Mexico every other year during June.
Only seven Junes since 1950 have seen two or more named storms. Among those seven years is June 2012, which had Hurricane Chris in the northern Atlantic and Tropical Storm Debby near Florida.
NEXT> Hurricanes in June are even more infrequent.
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