Hurricane season winds down in Louisiana

The big picture: Louisiana made it through the busiest part of the Atlantic hurricane season unscathed.

• In fact, no hurricanes have made landfall on the U.S. mainland so far.
• As of Monday afternoon, the Gulf, Caribbean and Atlantic were quiet too, the National Hurricane Center says.
• In the past 25 years, the Gulf has only had three hurricanes in November, according to the Houston Chronicle.

Zoom in: There have been 13 named storms so far this season, with five of those strengthening into hurricanes.

• Hurricane Melissa was the strongest storm of the year, killing more than 60 people in the Caribbean last week.

The other side: The National Weather Service still urges caution, because storms can form any time.

• "The window is closing," NWS meteorologist Rob Frye says, but "weird things can happen."
• Case in point: A tropical storm made landfall near Dauphin Island, Alabama, in November 2009.

The bottom line: We're not trying to tempt fate (knock on wood), but we're feeling hopeful.