A straight answer to the question every Gulf Coast and Atlantic homeowner asks every June.
IsItHurricaneSeasonYet.com pulls real-time NHC storm data, 7-day formation outlooks, and NOAA seasonal forecasts and translates them into one clear answer — is anything threatening you right now, how bad is this season expected to be, and what should you do about it today.
What this site is
It's a hurricane threat tracker built around a real answer. Not "hurricane season runs June 1 through November 30" — you already know that. This site answers: is something forming right now, how close is it to me, and what do I actually need to do?
The threat status at the top is driven by live NHC data for the Atlantic basin. Below it, the page walks you through everything from 7-day formation probability to how the current season compares historically — each section designed to answer the specific question a coastal homeowner has when hurricane season is active.
Why we built it
The National Hurricane Center publishes excellent data. It's authoritative, updated every 6 hours, and genuinely the best tropical weather information available anywhere on earth. It's also built for meteorologists and emergency managers, not for a family in Tampa trying to figure out whether to order storm shutters this week.
Weather sites layer ads and click-bait over NHC data without translating it. Local news covers active storms but ignores the seasonal picture. Nobody answers the three questions that actually matter to a homeowner: is something threatening me right now, how bad is this season expected to be, and what should I be doing about it today — specific to where I am, calibrated to current threat level.
We built the site we wished existed — one that treats NHC data as the foundation of a consumer-useful tool, not a backdrop for weather drama.
Three site states
The site operates in three states, and the entire page changes accordingly.
Pre-season (before June 1): The Atlantic is not officially active. The page shows a countdown to season open, the NOAA seasonal forecast for the coming season, and historical context so you can benchmark what "above normal" actually means.
Active / Quiet (June 1–November 30, no named storm): Season is open but no named system exists. The page shows the 7-day formation outlook from NHC's GTWO feed — disturbances being monitored across the Gulf of Mexico, Caribbean, and open Atlantic — plus season clock, current ACE pace, and prep guidance calibrated to this point in the season.
Active / Storm (named system exists): A named tropical system is active. The page leads with threat level, storm category, distance to your location, and the cone map. The "Is This My Storm?" decision table routes you to the right response — evacuate, prepare, or monitor — based on where you are relative to the cone.
What's on the page
At the top you get the current threat status in plain language: None, Watch, Warning, or Direct Threat. A driver chip below it explains what's driving the status — whether that's "below-normal season forecast," "tropical wave being monitored," or "Cat 3 approaching Florida."
7-day Formation Probability bars show the NHC's twice-daily GTWO outlook — one bar per day, color-coded by probability. Green is low (<20%), yellow is moderate (20–50%), orange is elevated (50%+). A plain-English summary below the bars explains what the numbers mean in practical terms.
The Prep Window widget is the most distinctive feature on the site. It translates threat probability into specific urgency signals: if a storm forms today and follows an average track, how many days of warning would Tampa or Houston or Miami realistically get? Three track bars — shutters (need 2 weeks to install), generator (need 3 days to source), emergency kit (need 1 hour) — show whether you still have time to act on each one.
"What's Brewing" multi-basin radar shows formation risk across the four Atlantic sub-basins — Gulf of Mexico, Caribbean, open Atlantic, and eastern Pacific — as a concentric-ring bullseye, so a homeowner in New Orleans can immediately see whether the Gulf risk is elevated even when open Atlantic storms are in the news.
Season Drivers breakdown covers the four factors that determine how bad a season will be: sea surface temperature, wind shear, ENSO phase (La Niña/El Niño/Neutral), and African dust. Each gets a plain-English read and trend indicator based on current NOAA monitoring.
The Season Clock is a horizontal timeline from June 1 to November 30 with the climatological peak window (August 20 – October 10) highlighted, today's position marked, and named storm pace this year vs. the average.
ACE mountain chart shows cumulative Accumulated Cyclone Energy week by week versus the historical average — the most complete single number for season intensity.
The Cone Map (active storm only) is a clean, minimal visualization of the NHC cone of uncertainty and track — their data, a cleaner design than the NHC's own cluttered version.
Storm Prep affiliate grid shows products calibrated to the current season state and your specific threat level — different items in pre-season, peak season, and when an active storm exists.
Data sources
Active storm data comes from the NHC CurrentStorms.json feed, updated per advisory (approximately every 6 hours during an active storm). Formation probability comes from the NHC 7-day Tropical Weather Outlook, published twice daily. Cone of uncertainty and track geometry comes from the NHC MapServer GeoJSON REST API. Seasonal forecast comes from the NOAA Climate Prediction Center, issued in May and updated in August. Historical storm data uses HURDAT2 — the complete Atlantic hurricane database from 1851 to present.
All data sources are free, public, and operated by US government agencies. No API keys are required. Data is aggregated and cached by a Cloudflare Worker that refreshes at the appropriate cadence for each source.
Location is resolved via your browser's Geolocation API or ZIP code input. Your coordinates are used only to calculate your proximity to active storms and your basin risk profile — they are never stored or transmitted beyond what's needed to fetch your local data.
Storm surge is the deadliest hazard
Historically, storm surge — the wall of ocean water pushed ashore by a storm's winds — kills more people in Atlantic hurricanes than wind, rain, or any other factor. A Category 1 hurricane making direct landfall can produce surge that renders wind category irrelevant. This site emphasizes surge risk in its location-based recommendations for exactly this reason.
Evacuation decisions should always follow local emergency management, not this site. When an evacuation order is issued for your zone, follow it.
The guides
Beyond the tracker, the site has in-depth guides covering what storm surge actually is, how to read the NHC cone of uncertainty, how to choose a generator, what a complete hurricane prep checklist looks like, how to build an evacuation plan, flood insurance basics, and historical season recaps. They're at isithurricaneseasonyet.com/guides.
Who built this
This site is part of a small network of seasonal condition trackers built to answer the questions people actually type when they're trying to figure out what's happening — outside, with their health, or both. The allergy counterpart lives at isitallergyseasonyet.com. The mosquito tracker is at isitmosquitoseasonyet.com. The flu tracker is at isitfluseasonyet.com.
Nothing on this site is emergency management guidance, and nothing should substitute for following your local emergency manager's instructions during an active storm. See our Terms for the full disclaimer.
Affiliate disclosure
Some product links — generators, storm shutters, emergency kits, fuel cans, and related preparedness supplies throughout the site and guides — are Amazon affiliate links. If you purchase through one of these links, we may earn a small commission at no additional cost to you. Products are chosen because they're genuinely useful for hurricane preparedness, not because of commission rates.
Get in touch
Questions, data corrections, or feedback: [email protected], or use the contact form.