While the appearance of three storms in the Atlantic Basin may seem unusual, it actually closely resembles a pattern last seen during 2010's hurricane season.

In September of 2017, meteorologists and coastal residents have their eyes on three hurricanes in Irma, Katia, and Jose. Back in September 2010, those same people had their eyes on Igor, Julia, and Karl.

Satellite images from 2010 show Igor, Julia, and Karl, all in similar locations to the identically initialed Hurricanes in 2017.

While the odds of seeing three hurricanes in the Atlantic Basin at the same time are slim, the odds of seeing three with the same initials is an even slimmer.

While Irma is on track to impact Florida, with the potential to carry on up into Georgia and South Carolina, Igor took a much different path. After impacting parts of the Caribbean similar to Irma, Igor steered further east, out to sea, and carried all the way up to Newfoundland, where it made landfall as a Category 1 Hurricane.

In 2017, Hurricane Jose has the potential to affect some areas that were hit hard by Irma. In 2010, Julia proved to be mostly harmless, staying out to sea, and was weakened in part by Hurricane Igor ahead of it, as well as dust from the Saharan Desert.


Karl and Katia had their own similarities as the weakest storms in their respective bunches, with Karl making its landfall in 2010 as a Tropical Storm. For now, Katia remains a Category 1 Hurricane but could strengthen to a Category 3 before turning Southwest making landfall in Mexico Saturday.