With the peak of the season -- late August to mid-October -- now behind, the Atlantic-Caribbean basin has seen just two hurricanes and a total of eight tropical storms.El Nino, the Pacific warm-water phenomenon that can produce destructive weather in other parts of the world, played a big role in suppressing Atlantic cyclones this year, experts said.
If the full season, which runs from June through November, ended today, it would be the lowest number of storms since 1997. The last time an Atlantic season produced only two hurricanes was 1982.
After a 2008 season that produced Hurricane Ike, one of the most destructive in U.S. history, the cyclones of 2009 have had virtually no impact on the populous U.S. coasts, the vulnerable islands of the Caribbean or the Gulf of Mexico oil patch.
"There was for all intents and purposes no hurricane damage in the United States this year," Robert Hartwig, president of the Insurance Information Institute, told Reuters.
Although the peak has passed, the six-month season still has nearly seven weeks to run. It officially ends on November 30.
"It's not over," said meteorologist Jill Hasling, president of Houston's Weather Research Center, which monitors weather for the offshore oil industry.
"There's pretty warm water in the Gulf still," she said. "If we get enough cold fronts in here and cool the water off, we'll be clear for this season. But it hasn't happened yet."