Bahamas hurricane season, month by month

The season in one line: June to November, worst from mid-August to October

The Bahamas follows the official Atlantic hurricane season, June 1 to November 30. Across the whole Atlantic, the National Hurricane Center puts the peak on September 10, with most activity between mid-August and mid-October. Every one of the major hurricanes below struck the islands between late August and early October.

Rain tells a slightly different story. In Nassau, June is the wettest month on paper at 220mm, but that is the start of the wet season, not the storm peak: most of it falls as short, heavy afternoon showers. From December to April, Nassau gets only 43–74mm a month.

Month by month

• June (220mm) and July (158mm): the season opens with the wettest weeks of the year, but the storm risk is still low. In an average Atlantic season the first hurricane does not form until early to mid-August.
• August (211mm): risk climbs through the month. Irene crossed the islands as a category 3 on 24–25 August 2011.
• September (196mm): the Atlantic peak. Irma came ashore on Little Inagua on 8 September 2017, and Dorian hit Abaco and Grand Bahama on 1 September 2019. Our worst time to visit the Bahamas guide calls it the month to avoid.
• October (151mm): still in the main season. Joaquin in 2015 and Matthew in 2016 both struck in the first week of October.
• November (87mm): the season winds down and rain nearly halves.

Hurricanes that have hit the Bahamas

These are recent hurricanes from the National Hurricane Center's storm reports. It is a guide to the pattern, not a complete list.

• Irene, 24–25 August 2011, category 3. Irene crossed Acklins, Crooked Island and Long Island, then passed between Exuma and Cat Island, over Eleuthera and on to Abaco. The NHC notes there were no reported deaths in the Bahamas.
• Joaquin, 1–2 October 2015, category 4. Joaquin made a slow hairpin turn over the southeastern and central islands, coming ashore on Samana Cay, Rum Cay and San Salvador. The NHC calls it the strongest October hurricane known to have affected the Bahamas since 1866.
• Matthew, 6–7 October 2016, category 4. Its eyewall passed over the far west of New Providence, the island that holds Nassau, before it made landfall near West End on Grand Bahama.
• Irma, 8 September 2017, category 4. Landfall on Little Inagua, in the far south of the chain.
• Dorian, 1 September 2019, category 5. Dorian made landfall at Elbow Cay on Abaco with winds near 185 mph, then on Grand Bahama, and slowed to a crawl over the northwest of the islands. The NHC calls it the strongest hurricane in modern records to make landfall in the Bahamas. Hope Town recorded 22.84 inches of rain.

The islands form a long chain, so one storm does not hit all of them. Irma and Joaquin struck the southern and central islands; Dorian and Matthew hit Abaco, Grand Bahama and the west of New Providence.

If your dates fall in hurricane season

• Choose the edges. May, just before the season opens, and November, as it winds down, have far less storm history than September and October. Nassau gets 139mm of rain in May and 87mm in November.
• Book flexible. Pick refundable hotel rates and flights you can change, and buy travel insurance when you book, before a storm has a name.
• Watch the forecast. Hurricanes are tracked for days before they arrive. Follow the National Hurricane Center and the Bahamas Department of Meteorology; our live storm tracker shows active storms.
• Or go December to April. That is the dry season and outside hurricane season, though it is also the busiest and most expensive time. The best time to visit the Bahamas guide covers it month by month.

For the wider region, island by island, see when hurricane season is in the Caribbean.