The National Hurricane Center is monitoring an area near the Atlantic coast of Georgia and the Carolinas for potential tropical cyclone development.

In the Atlantic Basin, which includes storms that form in the Atlantic, the Caribbean Sea and the Gulf of America (formerly known as Gulf of Mexico), hurricane season lasts from June 1 until Nov. 30. Historically, 97% of all tropical cyclones in the Atlantic will form between those two dates.

June 1 is the first day of hurricane season in the Atlantic Ocean, the official start of a six-month period that can bring some of the most destructive and costly natural disasters to American shores.