Four Named Tropical Cyclones at Once in the Central and Eastern Pacific Ocean Resemble a String of Pearls in Satellite Imagery

Threats From Ernesto Impacting US Coastal Areas

The eastern half of the Pacific Ocean has come to life in the last week with the development of four named storms stretching from near Mexico's Pacific coast to several hundred miles east of Hawaii.

(MORE: Interactive Hurricane Tracker)

Hurricane Hector, the first to form, is expected to pass south of Hawaii Wednesday.

Over 1,400 miles east of Hector was Kristy, which had strengthened quickly into a tropical storm by Tuesday morning.

About 1,000 miles east of Kristy and closer to Mexico's Pacific Coast early Tuesday morning were Hurricane John and Tropical Storm Ileana.

Ileana didn't stick around long, dissipating late Tuesday morning after John's nearby dominant and larger circulation caused it to fall apart. The remnants of Ileana are forecast to pivot north and northwest around John and become less defined.

You can see all four of these tropical cyclones lined up in this satellite image from Tuesday morning.

MJO is a disturbance that propagates eastward around the globe over a period of 30 to 60 days with phases that enhance or suppress thunderstorm activity.

Right now, the enhanced phase of the MJO is over the central and eastern Pacific, leading to rising air and an increase in thunderstorm activity. The MJO didn't cause these tropical cyclones to form, but it makes conditions more hospitable for their development.

Conversely, sinking air from the suppressed phase of the MJO is over the central Atlantic. 

Although it's only one factor, the suppressed phase of the MJO could be helping to put a lid on tropical cyclone development in the Atlantic. Until Subtropical Storm Debby's formation in the north Atlantic on Tuesday, no named storms had been active in the Atlantic since Beryl faded away on July 15.

Incredibly, the enhanced phase of the MJO helped spark an outbreak of eight tropical cyclones in the Pacific during late July 2017, sprawling from southeast Asia to the Pacific Coast of Mexico. That was the most tropical cyclones to coexist in the northern Pacific Ocean since 1974.

(MORE: Eight Tropical Cyclones at One Time)