1998 Hurricane Track Summary
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Learn about 1998 Hurricane Summary
The 1998 Atlantic hurricane season was the second deadliest season on record. One of the notable storms of the 1998 season was Hurricane Georges, which killed an estimated 602 people, mostly in the Dominican Republic and Haiti, and at the time was the 19th deadliest 20th century Atlantic hurricane. Although Georges was a record-setting storm, it was a distant second to Hurricane Mitch. Mitch was responsible for at least 11,000 deaths, mostly in Honduras and Nicaragua. Mitch is the second deadliest Atlantic hurricane on record, behind only the Great Hurricane of 1780.
The season began in late July, and after a quiet beginning to August, the tropics remained active through early October. With 5 storms reaching hurricane status in September, the month was among the most active on record. 7 storms also occurred in the month. In addition, two storms existed in the month of November, one of which became a hurricane. In all, seven storms made landfall around the Atlantic Ocean, of which four were hurricanes. The Gulf of Mexico experienced six tropical cyclones, a relatively high amount.
An extremely unusual feature of the season was the presence of four simultaneous hurricanes; Georges, Ivan, Karl, and Jeanne on September 26. Such an event has never been recorded since the 1893 Atlantic hurricane season. Three simultaneous hurricanes is extremely rare on its own, and has happened only 7 times from 1950 through 2005.