Yucatan Channel
A quarter above baseline, at the top of its range.
Above normal +15% against its 2019–2023 baseline
Reading for — 6 days ago. Figures are a 30-day mean, so one quiet day does not move them.
Two years of daily transits
Month by month
| Month | Transits/day | vs baseline |
|---|---|---|
| October 2026 | 52 | +17% |
| September 2026 | 51 | +15% |
| August 2026 | 52 | +19% |
| July 2026 | 55 | +24% |
| June 2026 | 54 | +23% |
| May 2026 | 52 | +19% |
The 18 months before that
| Month | Transits/day | vs baseline |
|---|---|---|
| April 2026 | 56 | +27% |
| March 2026 | 52 | +17% |
| February 2026 | 50 | +12% |
| January 2026 | 48 | +8% |
| December 2025 | 44 | −1% |
| November 2025 | 50 | +13% |
| October 2025 | 50 | +12% |
| September 2025 | 51 | +15% |
| August 2025 | 50 | +14% |
| July 2025 | 46 | +5% |
| June 2025 | 47 | +7% |
| May 2025 | 47 | +6% |
| April 2025 | 47 | +6% |
| March 2025 | 49 | +11% |
| February 2025 | 49 | +11% |
| January 2025 | 46 | +5% |
| December 2024 | 49 | +11% |
| November 2024 | 52 | +18% |
Record high 56.1/day (May 2026), record low 36.8/day (June 2020), on the 30-day mean since January 2019.
Source
Daily transit counts derived from satellite AIS positions by IMF PortWatch, covering 2841 days from 1 January 2019.
Source: IMF PortWatch, https://portwatch.imf.org. PortWatch is published under IMF terms rather than CC BY 4.0, unlike the rest of the data on this site: the figures here are derived and transformed, and the underlying series is not republished.
The Gulf of Mexico’s main door
The Yucatan Channel runs between Mexico and Cuba and is the principal entrance to the Gulf of Mexico from the Caribbean. It is running about a quarter above its 2019–2023 baseline and set its record high in May 2026.
Against last year it is up modestly — so the elevation is not new, but it has not stopped either.
The Caribbean routes are not moving together
Windward Passage and Mona Passage are both level with their baselines. Yucatan is the only one of the three materially above its own.
Routes in the same region moving differently is worth noticing: it argues against a regional explanation and for something specific to the Gulf approach. What that something is, this page does not say — a transit count cannot distinguish between more cargo, different routing, or a change in vessel size.
Range
The record runs from about 37 to 56 transits a day. The current reading is at the top of that band, which is a real observation and a modest one in absolute terms.