As we discussed in class this week, the three named storms, Igor, Julia, and Karl, in the Atlantic region (the Gulf of Mexico included) are a somewhat remarkable phenomenon. Such a trio of systems doesn't happen every year. In fact, it's quite unusual. According to Jeff Masters at Weather Underground, "This is a rare phenomena, having occurred only eight previous years since 1851. The last time we had three simultaneous hurricanes in the Atlantic was in 1998. That year also had four simultaneous hurricanes--Georges, Ivan, Jeanne and Karl--for a brief time on September 25. There has been just one other case of four simultaneous Atlantic hurricanes, on August 22, 1893."
Today, the potential for a fourth Atlantic system was identified by forecasters:
I thought you might also be interested in looking at the predicted storm-tracks for Igor, Julia, and Karl.
Igor's forecasted track between now and next Wednesday looks like this:
Julia's supposed to track in a similar direction:
Karl's on his own in the Gulf of Mexico. Here's where he's probably headed over the weekend:
