At a Glance

A hurricane hasn't made landfall on the Florida Peninsula in five years.Florida's Panhandle hasn't been so lucky, taking a pummeling from Sally and Michael.Florida had a record-long hurricane drought of over 10 years earlier this century.That was preceded by a frenetic stretch of hurricanes in 2004 and 2005.

Florida's Peninsula has been spared a hurricane landfall for five years, despite a siege of them along the Gulf Coast, including notable strikes in the Florida Panhandle.

Since tracked northward through Florida in September 2017, no hurricane has made landfall in the state's peninsula in the last five years.

Looking at the map of hurricane tracks over the past four seasons, it almost appears as if there has been a shield over the peninsula, deflecting hurricanes away.

The orange tracks in the map below show segments during which a former or future hurricane was a tropical storm at the time, including a few over the peninsula.

Tracks of all hurricanes from 2018 through 2021 near Florida. Eta and Elsa were only briefly hurricanes in the Gulf before striking Florida as tropical storms. Sally moved across South Florida as a tropical depression, then tropical storm.

(Data: NOAA/NHC)

In 2021, briefly became a hurricane off western Florida but weakened to a tropical storm before landfall in northern Florida's Big Bend. Later, flirted with the east coast of Florida as a tropical storm, then became a hurricane again on its way to the Carolinas.

Among the record 30 storms and 14 hurricanes of the 2020 season, moved across South Florida as a depression, then a tropical storm, before lumbering into Alabama and the western Florida Panhandle as a hurricane. Eta was only briefly a Gulf hurricane before cutting across northern Florida as a tropical storm.

was a close call. After devastating the northwestern Bahamas, it stayed well off Florida's East Coast before it grazed the Carolinas in September 2019.

Why The Peninsula Luck?

Where a hurricane tracks depends on the surrounding large-scale winds steering the storm.

Recently, any hurricanes have been steered away from the peninsula, either far enough east, as was the case with Dorian, or toward the northern Gulf of Mexico.

Elsa (2021) and Eta (2020) experienced just enough wind shear or dry air to keep them from plowing into the state as hurricanes.

Florida's Panhandle hasn't been nearly so lucky.

In addition to the flooding rain and winds from Sally in 2020, the panhandle took its hardest punch from Category 5 in October 2018, one of the most intense U.S. landfalls in history.

Louisiana has taken the brunt of hurricanes recently, including Category 4 hurricanes in consecutive years – in 2020 and in 2021, along with 2020's and .

An Even Longer Hurricane-Free Streak Recently

Prior to 2016, there was an even longer, stranger hurricane-free streak in the Sunshine State, and this one was statewide.

Following 2005's Hurricane Wilma, almost 11 years went by without a single hurricane landfall anywhere in Florida.

It was, by far, the , during which 68 straight hurricanes failed to come ashore in Florida. Hurricane Hermine finally in 2016.

If you think the first map above was amazing, the one below probably tops that. The only hurricane tracks on that map near or over Florida were of two former hurricanes, Ida in 2009 and Ernesto in 2006.

Hurricane tracks near Florida during its record-long hurricane drought.

(Data: NOAA/NHC)

This Won't Last Much Longer

Since 1851, 40% of all U.S. hurricanes hit Florida, and 88% of all major hurricane strikes have been either in Florida or Texas, according to NOAA's .

With these recent lucky streaks, some may have forgotten the two-year siege of 2004 and 2005.

Beginning with Charley and ending with Wilma, six hurricanes made landfall in the state, five of those in the peninsula.

A seventh hurricane, Ivan, officially made landfall in Alabama, but also inflicted heavy damage in the panhandle. And 2005's Hurricane Rita produced storm surge flooding, heavy rain and tropical-storm-force winds in the Florida Keys while passing to their south.

Hurricane tracks near Florida in 2004 and 2005.

(Data: NOAA/NHC)

Since 2005, Florida added new residents, according to USAFacts. In 2020, Florida was the .

That likely includes a significant number of new residents that have never experienced a hurricane before.

Despite any recent stretch of hurricane-free luck, you should prepare every hurricane season as if this will be the season one strikes.

You can find tips on how to develop your hurricane plan .

The Weather Company’s primary journalistic mission is to report on breaking weather news, the environment and the importance of science to our lives. This story does not necessarily represent the position of our parent company, .