Nothing East, West Of Florida As 2025 Season Ends…
BOCA RATON, FL (BocaNewsNow.com) (Copyright © 2025 MetroDesk Media, LLC) — We don’t want to jinx it, but the Atlantic hurricane season ends at midnight and the National Hurricane Center confirms that there is nothing out there of concern. Despite the hype, this season was tame for the United States. Forecasters with Colorado State University — considered the gold standard of hurricane forecasting — issued this recap highlighting what they got right and what they missed:
>>The 2025 Atlantic hurricane season ended up an above-normal season, as measured by the number of major hurricanes and Accumulated Cyclone Energy (ACE). This activity was well forecast by Colorado State University’s July and August updates and slightly over-forecast with our April and June forecasts. The season had an unusual distribution of tropical cyclone activity, with 13 named storms, 5 hurricanes and 4 major hurricanes.
The 1991–2020 average season has 14 named storms, 7 hurricanes and 3 major hurricanes. All four major hurricanes reached at least Category 4 intensity, with three reaching Category 5 intensity (Erin, Humberto and Melissa). The season was benign for continental US impacts, with only one tropical storm (Chantal) making landfall, costing ~$500 million USD in damage. However, Hurricane Melissa caused devastation when it made landfall as a Category 5 hurricane in Jamaica, with preliminary estimates of $6–$7 billion USD in damage. The storm also caused extensive damage in Cuba and Hispaniola.
“The 2025 Atlantic hurricane season was relatively well-predicted by our seasonal outlooks, although we somewhat overpredicted the number of hurricanes that occurred this year, while under predicting the longevity of time that hurricanes would spend at major hurricane intensity. Our forecasts of Accumulated Cyclone Energy were quite successful, correctly anticipating above-normal values with all of our forecasts.” said Phil Klotzbach, lead author of the forecast. Accumulated Cyclone Energy is an integrated metric accounting for intensity and duration of storms.
Observed seasonal Accumulated Cyclone Energy (ACE) was 108% of the 1991–2020 average, while CSU predicted ACE to be approximately 125% of the 1991–2020 average with their April and June outlooks and 115% of the 1991–2020 average with their July and August outlooks.
Colorado State University also continued to forecast ACE west of 60°W, as ACE in the western part of the basin is particularly impactful to heavily populated regions. The forecast correctly anticipated a higher percentage of basinwide ACE occurring west of 60°W this year, although the percentage of ACE west of 60°W was higher than anticipated. While there was extensive tropical cyclone activity in the western half of the basin, the only hurricane with widespread significant impacts was Melissa.<<
If you want to “geek out” on the complete seasonal recap, check out CSU’s graphics and full report right here.
