ABC13 Weather U: Why October is the unofficial end of hurricane season in Texas

November 30 is the official end of the Atlantic hurricane season, but hurricane season in Texas usually ends more than a month earlier.

October 15 is the “unofficial” end of hurricane season in Texas, chief meteorologist Travis Herzog says, due to the seasonal shift in guiding wind patterns as we transition from summer to fall.

By October, the jet stream winds are getting stronger and migrating south toward the Gulf Coast, pushing fall fronts across Texas. The same directional winds that push fronts into the Gulf of Mexico usually push storms developing away from Texas toward Florida. Cold fronts also cool the warm Gulf waters and increase wind shear that can rupture tropical systems and prevent them from developing in the first place.

There were only a few specific storms that made landfall in Texas during October, the most recent being Hurricane Jerry in 1989. On October 15 of that year, Jerry made landfall along Galveston Island as a Category 1 minor hurricane with gusty winds. to 100 miles per hour. Jerry is also the latest recorded hurricane to make landfall in Texas, which is why we usually declare the hurricane season in Texas over by mid-October.

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