Hurricanes in the Atlantic and Pacific oceans follow a see-saw pattern — when one region is down, the other is usually up. And with the Atlantic quiet this year, the Pacific is setting records.
There’s been a parade of 14 named storms in the Eastern Pacific so far this year, including Hurricane Lane that flooded Hawaii. That’s almost as many as we usually get in an average year, and the season still has three more months to go. The monthly energy output in August from storms in the region was the highest ever, breaking a record from September 1992, according to Phil Klotzbach, a hurricane researcher at Colorado State University.
Meanwhile on the other side of the Americas, there have been five named storms through August, a collection of weak systems and oddballs that have done little damage. That’s a far cry from this time a year ago when the Atlantic had already begun to generate a series of monsters responsible for killing thousands and generating more than $200 billion in damage.
“If you look at the top 15 busiest northeast Pacific seasons, only one was also active in the Atlantic,” Klotzbach said.
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