OCALA, FL (352today.com) – The 2025 Atlantic hurricane season ended on Sunday, Nov. 30. The end of hurricane season is always something to celebrate in the Sunshine State, but this year residents of the 352 and beyond have reason to be especially jubilant, because it was the first hurricane season in a decade to pass without a storm making landfall along the Atlantic or Gulf coasts.

“The U.S. benefited from a combination of unique atmospheric conditions, the timing of cold fronts pushing across the East Coast, and a lot of luck, to make it through the peak of the season without a single hurricane landfall. This reprieve is welcome after recent catastrophic hurricane strikes like Helene and Milton last year,” AccuWeather Chief Meteorologist Jonathan Porter said in an announcement. “The U.S. has endured 17 hurricane landfalls in the past five years. Many families and businesses are still struggling to recover.”

Porter added that despite the comparatively quiet season here in Florida, this year’s hurricane season was anything but weak.

“This was an incredibly powerful and unique hurricane season which featured several rapidly intensifying storms. Water temperatures hundreds of feet below the ocean surface surged to near-record territory again this year,” Porter said. “Tragically, 2025 will be remembered for the last storm of the year so far. It only takes one landfall to create a devastating season, and Melissa was the deadliest and most destructive. Our hearts go out to the people of Jamaica and across the western Caribbean. More aid is still needed in the hardest hit areas.”

AccuWeather meteorologists attributed this hurricane season’s anomaly to five critical factors:

  • A weaker Bermuda High located farther east
  • Strong dips in the jet stream over the eastern half of the country
  • A rare interaction between two hurricanes known as the Fujiwhara Effect, in which two storms come close enough to one another to affect their strength and trajectory
  • The presence of dry air
  • The presence of wind shear

Even a slight difference in that unusual combination of circumstances could have resulted in literal disaster for Florida or other areas along the Atlantic and Gulf coasts, Porter said.

With places like Cedar Key still facing the fallout from 2024’s destructive one-two punch from Hurricanes Debby and Helene, this year’s hurricane season certainly gave residents of the 352 something to be grateful for this Thanksgiving.