 African
Dust
Looking at the picture to the right, provided by NASA, you can see dust (the brown plume) coming off the African continent. When this dust is present during hurricane season, it can help slow down the warming of the ocean as well as get wrapped into hurricane circulations slowing their development. The dust can also absorb a lot of the incoming solar radiation.
For more info on African dust and hurricanes see MSNBC's African Dust article.
El Nino
During El Nino years, the number and intensity of hurricanes decrease
in the Atlantic and Caribbean, but increase in the Eastern Pacific. Strong
winds at higher altitudes tend to "tear" potential hurricanes
apart as the following image
from the University of Illinois demonstrates.
From the following web site look at the number of hurricanes that occurred in different years. Look especially at 1983, 1991, 1997 and 2006.
What did you notice about those years?
Why do you think that happened?
To read more check out NOAA's National Hurricane Center's Archive of Hurricane Seasons.
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