July Atlantic hurricane outlook It's mid-July, and we have yet
to see a named storm form in the Atlantic this month. The
computer models are not predicting any development through at
least July 20, and if we make it all the way to the end of the
month without a named storm forming, it will be the first July
since 2009 without a named storm. Since the current active
hurricane period began in 1995, 13 of 17 years (76%) have had a
named storm form during July. The busiest July occurred in 2005,
when five named storms and two major hurricanes formed. These
included Hurricane Dennis and Hurricane Emily--the strongest
hurricanes ever observed so early in the season. Only eight
major hurricanes have formed in July since record keeping began
in 1851. As seen in Figure 1, most of the last half of July
activity occurs in the Gulf of Mexico and waters off the
Southeast U.S. coast. These type of storms form when a cold
front moves off the U.S. coast and stalls out, with the old
frontal boundary serving as a focal point f