Explainer
Warm water alone doesn't make hurricanes. Wind shear, winds changing speed and direction with height, tears young storms apart first. Same El Niño, opposite result in the Pacific: 20 named storms, three of them Category 5.
“Water temperatures have been warm enough for Atlantic hurricanes, but El Niño-fueled wind shear, aka tropical-system kryptonite, is the biggest reason the season has been squashed.”
El Niño just gave us the first no-hurricane September in decades. How long can the Atlantic shutout last?cnn.com