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August and September passed without a single Atlantic hurricane, thanks in part to a powerful El Niño. Forecasters are now raising the prospect that the season could conclude with zero Atlantic hurricanes.

“We are witnessing one of the most extraordinary Atlantic hurricane seasons in modern history,” said Alex DaSilva, lead hurricane expert at AccuWeather. “There is an increasingly likely scenario in which the Atlantic season ends without a single hurricane for the first time in more than a century.” The last time was in 1914, and before that 1907.

The possibility of a hurricane-free season is made all the more remarkable by the fact that early weather records are highly suspect, as weather watchers would have failed to count hurricanes that formed over remote parts of the Atlantic. It is very possible that 1914 and 1907 produced uncounted hurricanes. Reliable data dates back only to 1966, the year the U.S. began routine satellite weather monitoring.

Why has this year been so unusually quiet?…