How many hurricanes and tropical storms have formed before June 1? Here’s the list.

Justin Mitchell
·2 min read
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It’s not even June 1 yet, and all eyes are on the tropics as a small yellow “x” has popped up, noting a disturbance in the Atlantic off the coast of Florida.

The system has a low (10%) chance of formation over the next five days, the National Hurricane Center said Monday morning.

Weather experts predict an active 2023 hurricane season, and the NHC began posting its tropical update maps on May 11, weeks before the official start of the season.

While named storms are rare in the Atlantic basin before June 1, it can happen. The Atlantic basin includes U.S. states that border the Atlantic Ocean and Gulf of Mexico, including Florida, Mississippi, North Carolina, South Carolina, Georgia and Louisiana.

Here’s a look at named storms that have formed before the start of hurricane season, according to data from Weather Underground.

Hurricanes before June 1

Hurricane Able: May 15, 1951

  • Able is the earliest named hurricane in U.S. history, formed off the Florida Coast and gaining strength before it dissipated in the Atlantic. The National Weather Service detailed Able’s track and intensity in a 1952 bulletin written about the prior year’s hurricane season.

  • At the time the storm formed, the Navy had just arrived in Miami to prepare for hurricane season when they were immediately ordered out in a plane to start giving full reports on the storm.

  • While Able never made U.S. landfall, the storm did move over parts of the Bahamas on May 17, where low-level hurricane-force winds were reported.

Hurricane Able is the earliest named hurricane on record in the U.S.
Hurricane Able is the earliest named hurricane on record in the U.S.

Hurricane Alma, May 17, 1970

  • Alma briefly reached hurricane strength on May 20 before weakening in its approach toward Cuba, according to WNCT-TV in Greenville, North Carolina.

  • The tropical storm made landfall days later over the west coast of Florida, dumping a total of 6.6 inches of rain desperately needed at the time, according to the NHC and data from the National Climatic Data Center in Asheville, North Carolina.

  • “As it passed by the west coast of Florida, Alma looked very well organized with an eye feature on radar imagery, despite its intensity as a tropical depression as reported by nearby ship and land observations,” the NHC said.

Hurricanes in 1908

  • Two nameless hurricanes formed in March and May of 1908. Two decades before that, a hurricane was also recorded in May 1889.

Tropical storms before June 1

  • Tropical Storm Arthur, May 31, 1980

  • Tropical Storm Ana, April 18, 2003

  • Tropical Storm Arlene, May 1959

  • Tropical Storm Alice, February 2, 1953

  • Eleven other tropical storms were also recorded before 1953, when storms received names.

You can receive the latest tropical updates for your area by visiting hurricanes.gov.