2025 Hurricane Season Update

From June 1 to November 30, coastal areas along the Atlantic Ocean and Gulf of America are keenly aware of hurricane season. This 2025 update comes from marine weather experts Commanders Weather:

Few tropical systems have managed to make landfall so far this year – good news for the East Coast of the US, which usually experiences peak hurricane season late August through September.

Tropical Storm Barry made landfall in far southern Mexico on June 29, resulting in flooding across parts of Mexico and Belize. Over the 4th of July weekend, Tropical Storm Chantal developed over Florida then moved up the coast into the Carolinas, bringing heavy rain and prompting some water rescues.

The other named storms – Andrea, Dexter, and Erin – did not manage to make landfall. That is a great stroke of luck, since Erin strengthened from a tropical storm to a category 5 hurricane in under 24 hours while it passed northeast of the Leeward Islands on August 15. Peak sustained winds hit 160 mph.

As these unsteadily came down over the following days, Erin’s wind and swell field grew significantly while squalls clipped the Virgin Islands, Puerto Rico, and Turks and Caicos. By the time it passed between the Outer Banks of North Carolina and Bermuda on August 21, it was a category 2 storm. Erin continued turning right, passing a few hundred miles southeast of Cape Cod before continuing out into the North Atlantic.

While no major landfall occurred, Erin still produced widespread dangerous swell and rip currents across the Caribbean, Eastern Seaboard, Gulf of Maine, and Canadian Maritimes. Coastal inundation once again caused severe beach erosion across the Outer Banks, along with the loss of several more coastal homes.

It was a relative success for global weather models, which consistently showed Erin’s track turning right, largely sparing the Caribbean, Bahamas, and East Coast from significant impact, even 7+ days before it reached the Sargasso Sea.