Young Hurricane Season Churns Out Record Number of Storms

Two hurricanes and a tropical storm formed in the Atlantic in 12 hours’ time Wednesday, making 1995 one of the most active hurricane seasons on record.

Tropical storm systems were lined up like ducks from the mid-Atlantic to the Florida peninsula.

The number of named storms this season climbed to 10, with the most active part of the June-through-November period just beginning.

Never before have there been so many storms this early in the season; the old record was nine storms by Aug. 22 in 1936. The highest number of storms in an entire season is 21, a record set in 1933.

Humberto became a hurricane Wednesday morning when it reached the threshold of 75-m.p.h. winds less than halfway across the Atlantic between Africa and the Caribbean.

Tropical Storm Iris formed 920 miles to the west, several days away from any land. Within six hours, it had become a hurricane, with 80-m.p.h. winds.

Tropical Storm Jerry emerged off the East Coast of Florida in the afternoon and moved over land, bringing heavy rain, surf and 40-m.p.h. winds to the Ft. Lauderdale-West Palm Beach area. Up to eight inches of rain were forecast.

“We’ve had some international guests that aren’t too happy and are checking out a little early,” said Jody Hanson, a desk agent at the posh Breakers Hotel and Resort in Palm Beach. “Some people are going north to Orlando in search of better weather.”

Storms are designated tropical storms and assigned a name from an alphabetical list when their winds hit 39 m.p.h.

The greatest number of named storms ever tracked at one time in the Atlantic was four, and that has happened seven times in the last 103 years, National Hurricane Center records show.

The main reason for the busy season is the lack of the El Nino phenomenon in the Pacific, said Bill Gray, a professor at Colorado State University in Ft. Collins, Colo. Its warm surface waters every five or six years cause upper-level winds that are not conducive to hurricane formation.

Above-average rainfall in West Africa and high ocean water temperatures are also contributing to the lively season, he said.

Gray, who specializes in hurricane season predictions, said all factors are coming together for a season that could rival 1933. He is forecasting 16 storms this season. He expects nine to build into hurricanes, three of them potentially destructive.

Wednesday afternoon, Humberto was several days away from any land and too far out in the Atlantic for forecasters to predict a path.

Iris was heading west-northwest at 7 m.p.h. It was centered about 500 miles east of the Lesser Antilles in the eastern Caribbean.

Before Wednesday, there were three hurricanes this season: Allison, Erin and Felix.