Curaçao Hurricane Season: What the Record Shows

The short answer

Curaçao sits on the southern edge of the Atlantic hurricane belt. The season runs from 1 June to 30 November, with most activity from August to October. The Meteorological Department Curaçao counts more than 37 tropical cyclones passing within 100 nautical miles of the island between 1605 and 2024, about one every 11 years, and no hurricane or tropical storm has ever made direct landfall. When a storm does reach the island, it usually arrives as rain, swell and gusts from a system passing to the north.

Season 1 Jun to 30 NovBusiest Aug to OctDirect landfalls on record 0

It is the question many travellers ask right after booking autumn flights and then reading the words hurricane season. The good news is that the answer does not depend on opinion. The Meteorological Department Curaçao, the island's official weather service, has published its storm record and its reasoning, and this guide sets them out plainly, with the sources at the end so you can check every line.

I.When is hurricane season in Curaçao?

The Atlantic hurricane season runs from 1 June to 30 November, and Curaçao keeps the same calendar as the rest of the basin. The Meteorological Department Curaçao (MDC) places the most active stretch from August to October. Its longer study of the Dutch Caribbean adds that across the whole Atlantic the daily peak falls around 10 September, and that some seasons start before June or run past November.

Those are basin dates. They describe when storms form somewhere between the coast of Africa and the Gulf of Mexico, not when they reach this island, which most of them never do.

SourceMDC, climate, MDC, Hurricanes and Tropical Storms in the Dutch Caribbean (2018).

II.Is Curaçao in the hurricane belt?

On the edge of it. Travel writing often says Curaçao lies outside the belt. The island's weather service is more careful. Its 2018 study says that Aruba, Bonaire and Curaçao lie on the southern fringe and are not outside the hurricane belt, as many consider. Its current climate page describes the same position as the southern edge of the Atlantic hurricane region, where direct impacts are rare compared with islands further north.

The MDC gives four reasons the ABC islands see so few storms:

Latitude. At 12 to 13 degrees north the islands sit below the usual storm tracks, which tend to curve northward before reaching them.
Cool water. The trade winds drive an upwelling of colder water along the Venezuelan coast, and colder water suppresses storm development.
Dry air. The South American mainland, about 60 kilometres away, leaves less humidity for a storm to feed on.
Sinking air. The meeting of sea and land breezes produces subsiding air that holds back the towering clouds a storm needs.

On the edge of the belt, not outside it: rare, but not never.

SourceMDC, climate, MDC, 2018 study.

III.How often do storms come close?

The MDC record covers more than four centuries. From 1605 through 2024 it counts 37 or more tropical cyclones whose centre passed within 100 nautical miles of Curaçao, about 185 kilometres. That works out to roughly one every 11 years. In the same record, no hurricane and no tropical storm made direct landfall on the island.

You may meet a different figure elsewhere. The MDC's 2018 study says that on average a tropical cyclone passes within 150 kilometres once every four years, mostly to the north and without severe weather. The two figures come from different editions and do not agree with each other. The climate page is the newer of the two, so it is the one we lead with, but we show you both rather than hide the difference.

SourceMDC, climate, MDC, 2018 study.

IV.The storms that mattered

These are the systems the MDC singles out in its published record. Distances and effects are given as the MDC reports them.

Source: Meteorological Department Curaçao, climate page, 2018 study and season press releases. Distances are to the storm centre.
Date	System	Closest approach	What Curaçao saw
23 Sep 1877	A minor hurricane, remembered as Hurricane Tecla	Just south of the island	About US$2 million in damage, mostly on the Willemstad waterfront. A nunnery was washed away and at least 70 people drowned.
7 Oct 1954	Hurricane Hazel	About 90 km north	Winds of 50 km/h with gusts to 90 km/h, about 125 mm of rain in 48 hours, and flash floods.
16 Oct 1988	Tropical Storm Joan	Just south of the islands	Roofs blown off, harbour and beach facilities damaged, then several days of flooding. About US$1.5 million in damage.
25 Jul 1996	Tropical Storm Cesar	Over the island	The closest approach on record. Gusts to 93 km/h and very rough seas; one swimmer drowned.
8 to 9 Sep 2004	Hurricane Ivan	About 130 km north	A Hurricane Warning was issued. The winds stayed offshore, but the swell battered coastal structures.
Sep 2007	Hurricane Felix	Less than 100 km north	The first storm centre that close in more than a century. Local heavy rain and rough seas.
2008	Omar, a tropical storm that became a hurricane	Well north	An unusually wide wind field: southwesterly gales, big waves on south and west facing shores, beach erosion.
1 Nov 2010	Tropical Storm Tomás	About 115 km north	A rain band stalled over the southeast of the island overnight. A couple of deaths and about US$200 million in flood damage.
29 Sep 2016	Hurricane Matthew	About 190 km north	Heavy rain. On 4 October its swell damaged parts of the south coast, especially Boka Samí.
20 Jun 2017	Bret, weakened to a tropical wave	Over the island	A sudden burst of wind with some damage; a gust of 90 km/h was measured on Seru Kokori.
29 Jun 2022	Tropical Storm Bonnie	Close enough for warnings on all three ABC islands	Code red, school closures and curfews. Three to five inches of rain, coastal flooding and beach damage.
Jul 2024	Hurricane Beryl	Well north, through the Windward Islands	Minimal impact on the ABC islands.

Read down the last column and a pattern appears. Wind has done damage, as the roofs lost to Joan show, but water has done more: rain that stalls over the island, and swell that a storm hundreds of kilometres away pushes onto the coast. The worst flood damage in the modern record came from Tomás, a weakened storm whose centre never came within 100 kilometres.

The pastel merchant facades of the Handelskade waterfront in Punda, Willemstad — The Handelskade in Punda. The 1877 hurricane did most of its damage along the Willemstad waterfront.Photo: Fraganda · CC BY-SA 4.0

V.Rain, not wind: the months to know

The MDC describes Curaçao as dry for most of the year, with a dry season from February to May and a rainy season from October to January; July to September are transitional months. That puts the wettest part of the year across the second half of hurricane season. Joan came in October and Tomás on 1 November, and both are remembered for their rain.

In practical terms, an October or November stay is more likely to meet a heavy shower than a storm. Our Curaçao weather by month guide has the normals for every month, and the best time to visit Curaçao weighs the weather against crowds and room rates.

SourceMDC, climate.

VI.If a storm is forecast during your stay

The MDC monitors every tropical cyclone that could threaten Curaçao together with the US National Hurricane Center. It begins issuing colour coded Tropical Cyclone Bulletins up to five days (120 hours) before a possible threat, and it asks everyone to follow official messages only.

Weather: the MDC website at meteo.cw, the Curaçao Weather app and the MDC Facebook page.
Civil protection: the government's disaster management directorate, Directie Risicobeheersing en Rampenbeleid Curaçao, at kalamidat.cw, and the government's own announcements.
Everything else: forwarded screenshots and old forecast maps are not warnings. Check the date and the source before you change a plan.

On the water, respect the sea before the sky. The one death the MDC links to Tropical Storm Cesar was a swimmer in rough seas, and the swell from Ivan and Matthew arrived while those storms were far away. If the sea looks rough, choose a different day for the beach. Willemstad makes that easy, and our rainy day guide to Willemstad has the list.

Because the season is real even here, read your travel insurance before you book an autumn trip: what it says about weather disruption, and by when cover has to be bought. Airlines and hotels each set their own rules for named storms, so ask them directly rather than assume.

SourceMDC, 2017 season press release, MDC, 2018 season press release, Kalamidat.

VII.What it means for a stay in Punda

Going by the record above, the realistic hurricane season scenario for a guest in Punda is a wet evening or a day of heavy swell, not a lost holiday. Willemstad is a walking city: the covered lunch counters of Plasa Bieu, the shops of Breedestraat and the cafés of the waterfront are all a few minutes from our door, so a rain day costs far less here than at a remote beach resort. Our page on what is near the hotel maps it out.

Published2 November 2026Written at the concierge desk in Punda from the official sources listed below.

The Concierge Desk Majestic City Palace · Punda, Willemstad · Est. 1892

Questions travelers ask

Straight answers from the front desk.

Is Curaçao in the hurricane belt?

It sits on the southern edge of it. The Meteorological Department Curaçao says the ABC islands are not outside the belt, but their latitude, the cool water off Venezuela and the dry air near the mainland make direct impacts rare compared with islands further north.

Has a hurricane ever hit Curaçao directly?

Not by landfall. The Meteorological Department Curaçao record from 1605 to 2024 shows no hurricane or tropical storm making direct landfall. Storms passing nearby have still caused damage, mostly through rain and swell, as Tropical Storm Tomás did in 2010.

When is hurricane season in Curaçao?

From 1 June to 30 November, the standard Atlantic season. The Meteorological Department Curaçao puts the most active months from August to October.

Is November a good time to visit Curaçao?

November falls in the rainy season, which runs from October to January, and in the last weeks of hurricane season, so expect more showers than in spring. Storms close enough to matter are rare: about one every 11 years on the official record.

Where this came from

Listed so you can check us. Every date and number on this page comes from one of these official sources.

Primary and official

Meteorological Department Curaçao: climateSeason dates, the 1605 to 2024 count, why so few storms reach the ABC islands, Tropical Storm Bonnie and Hurricane Beryl.
Meteorological Department Curaçao: Hurricanes and Tropical Storms in the Dutch Caribbean (2018, PDF)The 1877 hurricane, Hazel, Joan, Cesar, Ivan, Felix, Omar and Tomás, the southern fringe wording and the basin peak.
Meteorological Department Curaçao: 2017 hurricane season press release (PDF)Hurricane Matthew, the swell at Boka Samí, and the official channels to follow.
Meteorological Department Curaçao: 2018 hurricane season press release (PDF)Bret passing over Curaçao in June 2017 and bulletins issued up to five days ahead.
Kalamidat: Directie Risicobeheersing en Rampenbeleid CuraçaoThe government's disaster management directorate.

The lobby of Majestic City Palace Hotel in Punda, Willemstad

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