Two November hurricanes have simultaneously formed in the Atlantic Ocean for only the third time since records began.
Hurricanes Lisa and Martin have brought an unusual amount of activity for this time of year, when hurricane season is usually nearly over. A third system in the Caribbean is also developing, reports the Washington Post.
The last two instances were in 1932 and in 2000, with Hurricanes Michelle and Noel, according to Phil Klotzbach, a meteorologist at Colorado State University.
Klotzbatch added that the strength of many tropical storms was probably underestimated before the use of satellites in 1966.
The Atlantic hurricane season ends on 30 November and usually has little activity past Halloween, when only about 7% of the season’s storms occur, reported the Post.
Lisa made landfall on Wednesday, hitting the Belize coast as a category 1 tropical cyclone, reports Accuweather. Lisa has since been downgraded to a tropical depression but caused severe damage in Belize. Residents in Belize City reported losing their roofs in the storm and managing major flooding.
Belize and Mexico ended their tropical storm warnings on Thursday morning, but experts are still concerned about damage Lisa.
Martin, now the seventh hurricane of the season, is currently a category 1 storm in the Atlantic. But Martin is not expected to make landfall, instead going north along the Atlantic where it could later hit parts of Europe.
The third, additional system is developing near the Bahamas, with a 20% chance of becoming a tropical storm or depression in the next five days, reported the Post.
Experts are unsure of the exact path of the system this far out, but the system would be called Nicole if it received a name.
