Fast facts
Where is? North Atlantic Ocean.
What’s in the picture? Hurricanes Katia, Irma and Jose in an almost perfect line.
Which satellite took the picture? Suomi National Polar-orbiting Partnership (Suomi NPP).
When was it taken? September 8, 2017
In this 2017 satellite image, a trio of hurricanes — including one of the most powerful tropical storms of the past decade — formed a nearly perfect line as they marched through “hurricane alley.” Some of the rotating storms, which initially appear to be in the wrong order, later made landfall in the US and Mexico.
The three hurricanes — Katia (left), Irma (center) and Jose (right) — were spotted by the Suomi NPP weather satellite, which is operated jointly by NASA and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA). Although they appear to follow one another, each of the storms is moving in a different direction: Katia reached Mexico on September 9; Irma hit Florida on September 10; and Jose eventually dissipated off the coast of New England on September 22.
Most Atlantic hurricanes form in the same body of water between Northwest Africa and the Gulf of Mexico, called the Alley of Hurricanes. However, it’s rare to see so many of them so close together – and form such a neat line, according to NASA’s Earth Observatory.
Major Atlantic storms are named in alphabetical order based on the order in which they appear each year hurricane season. So it may seem odd that Katia is ahead of Irma and Jose in the landfall queue.
However, the storms did not form in the order in which they appear in the image. Irma first formed on August 30 near the African islands of Cape Verde. Jose made its next appearance on September 5 in the mid-Atlantic, not far from where it is pictured. Katia also formed on September 5, shortly after Jose, but was born in Mexico’s Gulf of Campeche, which is why it is closest to land in the picture.
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Hurricane Irma was the most destructive of the three storms. According to National Weather Center. One person was killed directly by the winds, which reached maximum speeds of 130 mph (210 km/h), while up to 33 people were killed indirectly by the storm.
At the time, Hurricane Irma was reported to have the largest accumulated cyclone energy (ACE) — the total amount of wind energy generated over the lifetime of a tropical cyclone — of any tropical storm worldwide, according to NASA’s Earth Observatory. However, calculations later reduced its power.
The all-time ACE record was recently battered in 2023 by Cyclone Freddiewhich emerged in the Indian Ocean and made landfall three separate times, destroying parts of Madagascar and Mozambique.
Research shows that the rise in ocean temperature is human-caused climate change they have probably makes hurricanes more powerful on average. Some experts believe that we may have to create a new category six hurricane to track future storms.
The upcoming 2024 season is expected to be particularly active, with up to 25 named storms are forecastdue to record surface temperatures caused by recent El Niño an event. This year’s season has already started with a bang thanks to Hurricane Beryl, which formed earlier in the year than any other Category 5 hurricane on record.
