"The 2009 Atlantic hurricane season ended Monday without a hurricane landing on U.S. shores and with the fewest named storms in 12 years, according to the National Hurricane Center.

There were nine named tropical storms since June, when the season began. Three became hurricanes and two tropical storms made landfall, said Dennis Feltgen, a spokesman for the National Hurricane Center. ...

The reason: El Niño, the cyclical warming of equatorial waters in the eastern Pacific Ocean, which tends to inhibit the development of tropical systems in the Atlantic, Feltgen said."

Oren Dorell reports for USA TODAY November 30, 2009. [2]