MISSOULA — If you had "two hurricanes occupy Gulf Coast at the same time" on your 2020 bingo card, get your marker ready to make a check.
For the first time in recorded history, two hurricanes are forecasted to coexist in the Gulf of Mexico at the same time.
This hurricane season already has bragging rights of its own and is predicted to be one of the busiest on record.
Now with Tropical Storm Laura being the earliest 12th named storm to form and Tropical Depression 14 expected to become Tropical Storm Marco later this week, we are already looking at records being shattered for development this early in the season.
Tropical Storm Laura and Tropical Depression 14 are forecasted to become hurricanes early next week. The tracks for these two storms move through the heart of the Gulf of Mexico.
If these storms intensify and become hurricanes, as forecasted, then this would be the first time in recorded history two hurricanes were in the Gulf of Mexico at the same time.
The track of these storms also forecasts for landfall on the US Gulf Coast just hours apart on Tuesday afternoon and evening.
There has only been one other time in history two storms have made landfall at the same time in the Gulf, however only one of these storms was a hurricane.
On Sept. 5, 1933, a Category 3 hurricane made landfall at Texas and at the same midnight hour a tropical storm made landfall at Florida according to tropical scientist Phil Klotzbach.
On Sept. 5, 1933 at 4UTC, 2 named storms made landfall along the Gulf Coast simultaneously: Cuba-Brownsville as a Cat. 3 #hurricane near Brownsville & Treasure Coast near Cedar Key as 55kt tropical storm. Here's the US Weather Bureau daily weather map (valid 8am ET) that day. pic.twitter.com/t6YNBipCDT
— Philip Klotzbach (@philklotzbach) August 20, 2020
Forecasts change and there are still a few more days to go to see how things play out, but we may be adding this one to the list of surreal events that have occurred in 2020.
