This year's hurricane season has seen many storms forming in tropical waters near the equator that were initially forecast to head toward the U.S. east coast. But as it approached, all the storms changed direction to the north and then headed out to sea.
"The storms continue to turn north, away from the U.S. coast. This is repeated throughout the season. That is a prominent trend in the path of this year's typhoon, said Greg Postel, a meteorologist at Weather Channel.
Typhoon forecaster Greg Postel said that the characteristic of the 2025 typhoon season is the year of typhoons changing direction when typhoons circle out to sea instead of making landfall. This trend stems from the interaction of many different atmospheric conditions.
The 2025 typhoon season has 13 named storms, including four major hurricanes. September and October alone saw four typhoons, with super typhoon Melissa making landfall in Jamaica and becoming one of the strongest on record.
However, none of the hurricanes directly affect the United States. Only Tropical Storm Chantal hit South Carolina in July, causing flash floods that caused power outages, damaged many structures and killed at least four people.
The hurricane season ends on November 30 but there are few storms at a time as late as late as late as November, with the most recent being in 1991.
Weather forecasters say winds and atmospheric pressure are the main factors that determine the direction of storms this year.
Hurricanes typically move westward from the tropical Atlantic, but certain atmospheric conditions could cause the storm to move eastward, said Matthew Rosencrans, a hurricane forecaster with the National Weather Service (NWS). These conditions push the storm north, running parallel to the east coast of the United States before pushing it out to sea.
When you look at the storm's path at the peak of the season, there is a large-scale low pressure trough over the eastern United States. This low pressure trough will suck the storm north instead of continuing west into the Caribbean or Gulf of Mexico, which is almost certain to make landfall in the United States, Rosencrans forecaster said.
This low pressure area weakens the western part of the Bermuda high pressure mass, an important factor controlling the direction of the storm in the Atlantic. The location and intensity of this high pressure mass almost determine whether the storm will make landfall in the US or go out to sea.
The low pressure trough on the winter coast this year has appeared along with a branch of the stream, creating a low pressure area near the sea just a few hundred kilometers from the mainland. This significantly weakens the western part of the Bermuda high pressure system and pushes it back in the opposite direction.
This model is very effective in pushing tropical systems out to sea, says Postel.
It is unclear why the rays are clustering down like that in the global atmospheric picture. But that is a highlight of this year's hurricane season. If it had not been for this low pressure trough at key times, the 2025 hurricane season would have been very different," he explained.
It is relatively uncommon for no hurricanes to hit the United States throughout the season. In the past 25 years, excluding 2025, there have been 7 seasons without hurricanes in the US: 2000, 2001, 2006, 2009, 2010, 2013 and 2015. Data also shows that the 1990 and 1994 hurricane seasons also did not have any storms making landfall in the US.
