The last time three such storms occurred in the South Pacific was January 2021 when Lucas, Ana and Bina were churning simultaneously, though it’s not clear if Bina officially reached Category 1 status, Tang said.
There’s a lot of natural fluctuation in it … we need to be open to the possibility that factors that are beyond our ability to predict might have led to these three cyclones at the same time,” said Vecchi.
“It’s not incredibly unusual to have three hurricanes simultaneously in the month of September in the North Atlantic,” said Brian Tang, an atmospheric science professor at University at Albany.
Three tropical cyclones are spinning in the South Pacific, an occurrence that scientists say is unusual.
The storms are called cyclones when they happen in the Southwest Pacific and hurricanes when they form in the North Atlantic, but are essentially the same phenomenon.
