On September 23, 2004, four named tropical cyclones were going on in the Atlantic basin simultaneously, one of only five times that has happened since the modern satellite era of tracking storms began in 1960.
Hurricane Karl was about 1,000 miles southwest of the Azores, moving over the open waters of the North Atlantic.
Hurricane Jeanne was approaching the Bahamas, on her way to a rendezvous with the East Coast of Florida.
Tropical Storm Lisa was about 1,000 miles west of the Cape Verde Islands.
Tropical Storm Ivan had regenerated after the most unlikely of courses that carried the storm through the Caribbean, to the Alabama/Florida coast, across the Appalachians and back over the Atlantic southeast of North Carolina. From there it looped back across Florida and re-intensified over the Gulf of Mexico. As amazed forecasters and bewildered coastal residents tracked this “Son of Ivan†tropical storm, it headed toward the Texas/Louisiana border.
Other times there were four named systems occurring simultaneously:
1961 – 3 Hurricanes, 1 Tropical Storm
1971 – 1 Hurricanes, 3 Tropical Storm
1995 – 3 Hurricanes, 1 Tropical Storm (3 Days)
1998 – 4 Hurricanes (3 Days)
