It’s official, Houston: Hurricane Season 2025 is over!
In more than a century of records, a hurricane has never hit Texas after October 15
I’m officially declaring the 2025 hurricane season over for the state of Texas! And before you think that’s a bold statement, here’s why it’s not.
Going all the way back to 1842, Texas has never been hit by a tropical system after October 15. The last and only time it came close was that very day, October 15, 1989, when Hurricane Jerry made landfall in Southeast Texas.
Jerry came ashore at Jamaica Beach as a Category 1 hurricane with winds of 85 mph at 7:30 p.m. CDT. 
Sadly, three people lost their lives after their car drove off the Galveston Seawall.
The storm also spawned three documented tornadoes that tore roofs off homes in Galveston and Kemah, sustaining around $2 million in damage.
Since then, from October 16 through the official end of hurricane season on November 30, not a single tropical system has made landfall in Texas.
An Old Meteorological Saying That Still Rings True:
When I first moved to Houston in 2003, another meteorologist told me, “Once Houston gets its first cold front, hurricane season is over for us.”
And you know what? That bit of weather wisdom remains true.
It’s not really the “colder air” that ends the season, it’s the pattern that brings that front. During summer, the jet stream sits well to our north, but by the end of summer or early fall, it begins to dip south. That shift, when strong enough, brings a cold front through Texas, and that front creates strong surface-level and upper-level winds over the Gulf that act like a brick wall for tropical systems.
Storms always follow the path of least resistance, so instead of heading toward Texas, they’re steered toward Mexico or Florida. (The illustration below shows how this works.)
So far this year, Houston has already seen three cold fronts, with another one expected this Sunday, another good sign that the door to hurricanes is now shut.
But It Won’t Always Be This Way:
While I’m confidently declaring the end of the 2025 season, there will come a day when Texas will, in fact, see a hurricane after October 15.
Why? Because our climate is changing, that will shift seasonal patterns. All it would take is a year when cold air stays locked up in the northern U.S. or Canada through October or even November. Without that dip in the jet stream, the Gulf would remain wide open for storms to hit Texas.
Check out the sea surface temperatures for October 13. It’s more than warm enough, no matter where a storm goes. 
And yes, Jerry’s was back this year:
Hurricane names are reused every six years unless they’re retired for being particularly deadly or costly. That means “Jerry” returned to the list this year.
Last week, Tropical Storm Jerry reappeared in the Atlantic. Below is the track on October 8. It didn’t cause significant damage, so the name will stay on the rotation, expect to see Jerry again in 2031.
