El Niño has broken Atlantic hurricanes. Now the season is breaking records

No hurricanes have formed in the Atlantic Ocean 103 days into the season, a new record-long wait driven by a beast of an El Niño strangling fledgling storms. Until today, September 11 was the date of the latest first hurricanes — Gustav (2002) and Humberto (2013). Or at least, the latest we know with confidence since 1966, when satellites started tracking hurricanes more accurately. The first hurricane is now more than a month overdue, and there are no prospects for one in the foreseeable future. Thursday marked the statistical peak of the season, and with just five short-lived tropical storms to date, it is now also the least active one since 1950, according to Phil Klotzbach, a hurricane expert with Colorado State University. The only system that made a run at becoming a hurricane was tiny Tropical Storm Edouard on September 1.