How many hurricanes can exist at one time in the Atlantic Basin?  

Sixteen years ago, one of my all-time favorite satellite images showed four Atlantic hurricanes at once.

Fortunately, three of those hurricanes (Ivan, Jeanne and Karl) remained well out to sea in the central Atlantic Ocean.

But the fourth, Hurricane Georges, was responsible for more than 600 deaths, mainly in the Dominican Republic and Haiti, as well as $2.8 billion in U.S. damage.  

(RECAP:  Hurricane Georges 1998)

Ten to 20 inches of rain, with local amounts of more than 2 feet, was dumped on southern Mississippi, southern Alabama and the Florida Panhandle. A 5-12 foot storm surge was measured along the northern Gulf Coast.

How unusual is this?

As it turned out, four simultaneous Atlantic hurricanes had not previously been observed in the satellite era; or since the 1960s.

Going back further into the so-called best-track database, there had been no record of four simultaneous Atlantic hurricanes since 1893.

Amazingly, this did not even occur during the record-setting 2005 Atlantic hurricane season, during which there were 15 hurricanes.

MORE ON WEATHER.COM:  Hurricanes From Space