Lack of formation in the early season usually is attributed to waters not yet being warm enough to provide the heat storms use as fuel.

While the eastern Atlantic Ocean, where monster storms tend to emerge, still isn't warm enough yet, the Gulf of Mexico and Caribbean already are plenty warm in the early summer.

But a greater factor is wind shear, the atmospheric phenomenon that tends to kneecap weather systems before they can consolidate.

"Shear tends to be high this time of year, and it's even higher than normal this year," James Franklin, branch chief of the specialist unit at the National Hurricane Center, said this afternoon.

"We're starting off with a pattern that looks very inhibitive across the Atlantic," Franklin said.