The Atlantic hurricane season runs from June through November. This year, according to meteorologist Brian Lada of AccuWeather, Americans are in store for multiple Category 3-5 storms.
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Hurricane season regularly impacts travel around the south, southeast, and Caribbean. At best, hurricanes create dangerous weather systems that cause airlines to delay and cancel flights from hubs like Miami. At worst, they devastate destinations, creating multi-week emergencies for locals.
The 2025 hurricane season saw three Category 5 hurricanes rip through the Caribbean. That includes Hurricane Melissa, which struck outside the typical hurricane season (in December) and devastated Jamaica. Some parts of the island are still recovering from last year’s destruction.
Unfortunately, experts are once again signaling a potential onslaught of Category 3-5 storms as a particularly strong El Niño builds off the coast. Here’s what we know about potential hurricanes for the upcoming 2026 season.
A closer look at the 2026 hurricane season
AccuWeather has released one of the earliest hurricane season predictors. According to Lada, a few trends to look out for are fewer storms that are more powerful than others and later storms.
This is exemplified by last year’s trends—while hurricane numbers hovered around average, the presence of three separate Category 5 hurricanes is notable.
Similarly, Lada reports that most hurricane activity came after September 10—which is typically the apogee of the season.
However, another factor could lessen the impact of this year’s hurricane season. That’s El Niño, a separate meteorological phenomenon. El Niño describes a climate shift that occurs each year in the Pacific. Once the ocean around the equator warms to a certain temperature, El Niño causes fast upper-level winds to occur across the Atlantic.
In short, the higher those temperatures in the Pacific near the equator, the faster the winds created by El Niño. Those fast winds help break up tropical storms before they can develop into powerful hurricanes.
According to Lada, this year, a ‘super El Niño’ is possible. If that occurs, with temperatures in the Pacific rising over three degrees Fahrenheit, the chances of powerful hurricanes drop. While Lada predicts that there will be just as many or a slightly below average number of hurricanes, they’re likely to be less intense.
Here is AccuWeather’s final prediction for the Caribbean and East Coast summer travel plans: There will be between 11 and 16 named storms this year, with only two to four major hurricanes reaching a level of Category 3 or higher.
However, read deeper to explore other predictions from Lada. While the hurricane predictions are offset by a potential super El Niño, hurricanes have shown a pattern of rapid intensification in previous years.
