According to AccuWeather forecasters, La Nina will not dominate the early stages of this year's hurricane season, but signs from the Pacific Ocean are keeping experts close in on the possibility of this phenomenon appearing from late August to November - the time considered the peak of the hurricane season.
La Nina is a concept used to refer to the phenomenon of abnormal cold front of the surface water layer in the sea east of the equator of the Pacific Ocean, also known as the "cold pressure".
Although occurring in the Pacific, this phenomenon has a great impact on global weather, especially reducing the wind shear in the Atlantic region - an ideal condition for storms to form and intensify rapidly.
La Nina increases the number of storms it forms and allows them to intensify more rapidly, explains AccuWeather weather forecaster Alex DaSilva. "It also increases the likelihood of hurricanes making landfall in the US mainland and the Caribbean."
La Nina years typically record more named storms, many Category 3 or stronger storms, and the ACE (total accumulated storm energy) is also much higher than average.
The two most notorious hurricane seasons of this century - 2005 and 2020 - both occurred in the context of a strong La Nina activity.
In 2020, the US suffered 11 storms, including Hurricane Laura.
In 2005, the world witnessed the Hurricane Katrina disaster, and for the first time the official list of storm names was used up, forcing the use of the Greek letter bang.
With La Nina not yet active, Atlantic Ocean temperatures are still above average in 2025, allowing for rapid intensification as the storm approaches land, an extremely dangerous trend that has occurred continuously in recent years.
If La Nina appears at the end of the season and combines with unusually high ocean temperatures, we could see a peak of the turbulent hurricane season, from September to November, DaSilva warned.
While La Nina does not mean an above-average hurricane season, it does skew the balance towards danger. And for coastal communities, understanding the impact of this phenomenon will be the key to preparing for and responding more effectively to unexpected storms.
