It's been 50 years since the Pacific had this many tropical storms at once
A rather rare situation occurred Monday in the Eastern Pacific, with as many as four tropical storms churning at the same time –– an occurrence that hasn't happened in the region in five decades
A rare phenomenon occurred in the Pacific Ocean on Monday.
Four named tropical storms were churning in the ocean at the same time: Carlotta, Daniel, Emilia and Fabio. The last time that happened was 50 years ago, in August 1974.
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On other occasions, notably in 2018, several cyclones have churned up the warm waters of the Pacific at the same time, but they were not all of the same category.
Short duration
The extremely rare situation lasted only a few hours since Daniel was downgraded to a tropical depression and Carlotta weakened a few hours later.
In addition, the U.S. National Hurricane Center (NHC) forecast indicates that Fabio could be absorbed by Emilia on Wednesday, a phenomenon called the Fujiwhara effect.
It occurs when two systems rotating in the same direction pass close to each other. All storms at this time are forecast to remain over the ocean, having no impacts on land.
Catchup season
After a slow start to the season, tropical activity is gradually picking up in the Eastern Pacific. From July 4 to 24, no storms formed. Since then, Bud, Carlotta, Daniel, Emilia and Fabio have developed.
The latter represents the sixth named storm of the season. Aletta, the first cyclone of the season, was named on July 4. It had formed nearly a month later than average.
Originally published by MétéoMédia.
Translated to English by Matthew Grinter, a meteorologist at The Weather Network, and Kevin Cloutier, a meteorologist at MétéoMédia.
