--- title: "US Virgin Islands Hurricane Season: Dates and Real Odds · Virgin Islands Villas" url: https://virginislandvilla.com/usvi/hurricane-season description: "US Virgin Islands hurricane season runs June 1 to November 30, and ten weeks carry most of the risk: the islands' storm record by month, and the insurance rule." updated: 2026-10-10 source: https://virginislandvilla.com/usvi/hurricane-season --- [US Virgin Islands](https://virginislandvilla.com/usvi) · US Virgin Islands · Planning # Hurricane season in the US Virgin Islands Written by Virgin Islands Villas · Updated Oct 10, 2026 · [How this was checked](https://virginislandvilla.com/editorial-policy) Booking a US Virgin Islands hurricane season week is a decision about money more than weather: what a named storm does to your deposit and your insurance. There is no answer for everyone. The season runs June 1 to November 30, and two of its six months carry most of the risk. Below: the months, the record, the rules. ## The record by month, 1991 to 2024 The counts below are tropical systems whose track in the National Hurricane Center's HURDAT2 database passed within 100 km of each island between 1991 and 2024, by the month of closest approach. August and September carry most of them; June, July, October and November carry a few. | Month | Systems within 100 km of St. John | Of which hurricanes | Systems within 100 km of St. Thomas | Of which hurricanes | | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | | June | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | | July | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | | August | 6 | 3 | 5 | 2 | | September | 5 | 4 | 6 | 4 | | October | 5 | 1 | 4 | 0 | | November | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 | A system within 100 km is not a direct hit, and most of these passed as a day of wind and rain. The two that were direct hits, Irma and Maria in September 2017, are in the section below. ## When hurricane season actually is June 1 to November 30, by the National Hurricane Center's definition, and the window is six months wide because that is when storms have formed, not because they form evenly through it. People assume the season is a coin toss from June onward. The NHC's 1991 to 2020 climatology says otherwise: an average season has 14 named storms, 7 hurricanes and 3 major hurricanes, the first named storm typically in mid to late June, the first hurricane in early to mid-August, and the peak on September 10, with most activity between the middle of August and the middle of October. VITEMA, the territory's emergency agency, draws the same line for the islands: the most active and dangerous period runs from mid-August to late October. That is the basin. The islands sit at its eastern edge, in the path of the Cape Verde storms that cross the Atlantic in late summer, and their own record, below, is narrower still. ## The Virgin Islands hurricane record since 1991 Nineteen tropical systems in 34 seasons, ten of them hurricanes when they passed. We counted every track in the National Hurricane Center's HURDAT2 database that came within 100 km of St. John between 1991 and 2024. By month of closest approach: one in July, six in August, five in September, five in October, one in November and one in December. Of the ten hurricanes, three came in August, four in September, and one each in July, October and November. St. Thomas, measured from Charlotte Amalie, has 17 systems and 7 hurricanes in the same seasons, the same ten weeks. The ones people remember are on that list. Hugo in September 1989 and Marilyn in September 1995. Irma on September 6, 2017, a Category 5 whose southern eyewall passed directly over the islands, per NWS San Juan, with winds HURDAT2 puts at 150 knots, about 170 mph, at its closest point to St. John. Maria two weeks later, whose closest pass was September 20: St. Croix sat under its northern eyewall and took the worst of it, and the rain brought flooding and landslides across all the islands. Dorian in August 2019, a Category 1 when it passed, is the most recent. Read the other way, in 25 of those 34 seasons no hurricane came within 100 km of St. John at all, and in most of the others the closest pass was a tropical storm. The risk is real, it is concentrated in ten weeks, and in any single week it is small. ## What a September day usually looks like Hot, humid, mostly sunny, with a shower that crosses in twenty minutes. September at the St. Thomas airport station averages a high of 89, 5.9 inches of rain over nine wet days, and the year's warmest sea at 86 degrees, on NOAA's 1991 to 2020 normals. That is twenty-one dry days in the wettest month of the storm season. The season's risk is a storm, not the weather. The island is at its quietest. The National Park beaches are empty in the morning, the villas listed here are at their low-season rate, and some Cruz Bay restaurants close for their own holidays in September and October. Check the ones that matter to you before you book. ## Month by month, June to November June and July carry the season's name and almost none of its record: one system within 100 km in 34 seasons, Hurricane Bertha in July 1996. Rain is at 2.4 to 2.9 inches, highs at 89 to 90, water at 84 to 85. These are the months to book if you want low-season rates with a risk small enough that a standard policy covers it. Suits a family tied to the school calendar. August is where the record turns: six systems, three of them hurricanes, including Dorian in 2019 and Earl in 2010. September is the peak, five systems and four hurricanes, Irma and Maria among them. October has five systems but only one at hurricane strength, Omar in 2008, and the second half of the month is where the season winds down in most years. Suits a couple whose dates can move. November has one late storm on the record, Lenny in 1999, which came from the west. It is the wettest month at 6.1 inches, but the storm risk is nearly gone and the rates stay low until the middle of December. Suits anyone who wants the low rate without the September question. ## What happens when a storm is coming A storm gives notice, and the notice is measured in days. The National Hurricane Center's forecast cone runs five days ahead. A hurricane watch is issued 48 hours before tropical-storm-force winds are expected to arrive, a hurricane warning 36 hours before, in the NHC's own terms. A named storm in the eastern Atlantic is a week or more from the islands; the decision to change a trip is made with days in hand, not hours. On the ground, VITEMA, the Virgin Islands Territorial Emergency Management Agency, says to shelter where you are if the house is structurally sound, to go to a congregate shelter only if it is not, and to leave early, before tropical-storm-force winds begin. It posts the shelter list as shelters open and sends warnings through Alert VI, its notification system, which a visitor can sign up for by phone or email. Villas here are built for the season: cisterns, generators and hurricane shutters are listed as amenities on the villa pages because they are what a house on St. John needs. Ask the owner what the house has and what they do when a watch is issued; a good owner has a plan and will tell you it in the first reply. ## Travel insurance: buy it before the storm has a name This is the rule that decides everything else. Once a storm is named it becomes, in Allianz Partners' words, a foreseeable event with known potential to affect your travel, and if you buy travel insurance after a storm is named, your plan will not provide coverage for storm-related claims. That is Allianz's hurricane article, dated June 1, 2020 and still its published position as of October 2026. Insurance bought at the deposit covers the season; insurance bought when the forecast turns covers nothing that forecast is about. What a standard plan then covers, in the same article's terms: cancellation or interruption when a natural disaster makes your destination uninhabitable; cancellation when your carrier cannot get you to the destination for at least 24 hours past the scheduled arrival because of one; and, on some plans, a pre-emptive evacuation ordered by local authorities, which Allianz says to check in your certificate. A trip canceled because a storm is forecast and nothing else has happened is not covered. If you want to be able to cancel because a storm is out there and you would rather not go, that is a cancel-for-any-reason rider: an add-on with its own purchase window after the first trip payment and a partial refund, both set in the certificate rather than in anyone's article. For a villa week in September it is the difference between a decision and a gamble. ## What an owner's hurricane cancellation policy does It replaces the platform's. Every villa on this site is booked with its owner, not with us, so the owner's terms are the only ones that apply, and the owners listed here state them on the villa page under Things to know: the full-refund window in days before check-in, the deposit, the balance date, and the rest of the terms in their own words. Read that block before you write. A named-storm clause, when an owner writes one, says what happens in one of three cases: a watch or warning for the islands on your arrival day, a mandatory evacuation, or a house left unlivable by the storm. The forms it takes are a move of dates at the same rate, a credit against a future stay, or a refund of whatever the owner can rebook. Where the block is silent, ask two questions in writing before you pay: what happens to the booking if a named storm is forecast for your dates, and what happens if the island is under a hurricane warning when you are due to arrive. Owners who live with the season have answers; the good ones offer a move of dates rather than a refund argument. The rates are the other half of the decision. On the calendars here the low season runs from mid-April to mid-December at one rate, so a September week costs what a May week costs; the discount is against the winter and the holidays, not against the spring. Choose September for the empty beaches, not for a price you could have had in May without the risk. ## Should you book in hurricane season? June, July and the first half of August: yes, with a standard policy bought at the deposit. The record is nearly empty, the rates are low, and the island is quiet. Late August to mid-October: yes if you can move your dates, hold refundable flights and buy the insurance early; no if the trip is the one week of the year that cannot move. November: yes, and bring a rain jacket for the afternoons. What Irma and Maria showed was not that the Virgin Islands are a dangerous place to visit in September, but that when a major storm comes it is forecast days ahead, and the people who had insurance and flexible dates were the ones who simply came another week. The month-by-month rates are on the St. John weather page; the ferry guide says how you get between the islands once you are here. ## Questions people ask **When is hurricane season in the US Virgin Islands?** June 1 to November 30, the Atlantic season as the National Hurricane Center defines it. On the islands' own record, 16 of the 19 tropical systems that passed within 100 km of St. John between 1991 and 2024 came in August, September and October. The NHC puts the peak of the season at September 10. **When is hurricane season in St. Thomas?** The same dates, June 1 to November 30, with the same ten weeks carrying the risk. Within 100 km of Charlotte Amalie, 17 tropical systems passed in the 34 seasons from 1991 to 2024, and 7 were hurricanes at the time. VITEMA calls mid-August to late October the most active and dangerous period. **Is it safe to visit St. John during hurricane season?** Most seasons pass without a hurricane near the island: in 25 of 34 seasons none came within 100 km. A storm is forecast days ahead, with a watch 48 hours before tropical-storm-force winds and a warning at 36, so the risk is a changed trip rather than a surprise. Insurance bought before any storm is named turns that into a paperwork problem. **Has St. John been hit by a hurricane recently?** Irma, on September 6, 2017, at Category 5, was the last direct hit, with Maria passing on September 20 the same month. Dorian passed within 40 km as a Category 1 in August 2019. Before 2017 the last major hurricanes to strike were Marilyn in 1995 and Hugo in 1989. **Should I buy travel insurance for a trip during hurricane season?** Yes, and buy it when you pay the deposit. Allianz Partners' own rule is that a named storm is a foreseeable event, so a plan bought after the naming covers nothing related to that storm. A cancel-for-any-reason rider, bought within its window after the first payment, is the only cover for canceling because a storm exists. **What does a hurricane cancellation policy at a villa look like?** The owner's terms, stated on the villa page under Things to know: a full refund up to a set number of days before check-in, then whatever the owner writes for a storm. A named-storm clause offers a move of dates, a credit or a refund of what can be rebooked when a watch or warning covers your arrival day. If the block says nothing about storms, ask before you pay. **How much cheaper is St. John in hurricane season?** On the villas listed here, no cheaper than May: the low-season rate runs from mid-April to mid-December, and the saving is against the winter and the holiday fortnight. The rate index by month is on the St. John weather page. Facts checked against [National Hurricane Center, Atlantic hurricane season climatology](https://www.nhc.noaa.gov/climo/), [NOAA NCEI, US climate normals 1991–2020, Charlotte Amalie airport station](https://www.ncei.noaa.gov/access/us-climate-normals/), [National Weather Service San Juan, Hurricane Irma 2017](https://www.weather.gov/sju/irma2017), [VITEMA, hurricane preparedness](https://vitema.vi.gov/hurricanes/) and [Allianz Partners, when a hurricane hits, what does travel insurance cover](https://www.allianztravelinsurance.com/travel/planning/hurricane-insurance-coverage.htm). Checked October 2026. Related guides - [Driving in St. Thomas and St. John, US Virgin Islands](https://virginislandvilla.com/usvi/driving-in-st-thomas-and-st-john) - [US Virgin Islands bachelorette party](https://virginislandvilla.com/usvi/bachelorette-groups-virgin-islands) - [All of US Virgin Islands](https://virginislandvilla.com/usvi) Own a house in the Virgin Islands? ## The guest writes to you. 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