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2017 hurricane season about to match 124-year-old record

Posted at 1:37 PM, Oct 10, 2017
and last updated 2017-10-12 12:28:25-04

Tropical Storm Ophelia has become Hurricane Ophelia, and in doing so, became the 10th hurricane in a row this season in addition to being the 15th named storm.

Ophelia won't directly threaten any land. Instead, it will continue to spin in the middle of the Atlantic before venturing closer to England.

Every tropical cyclone since Franklin has reached hurricane status, making Ophelia the 10th in a row without a tropical storm or depression in between.

That's something that hasn't happened since 1893.

However, there were no satellites in 1893, so smaller tropical storms in the middle of the Atlantic could have gone unnoticed during that 10-storm hurricane streak.

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Even the busiest hurricane seasons in recent years — 2012, 2010 and 2005 — didn't see nearly as many hurricanes back to back like this year. Those years had smaller tropical storms or depressions in between hurricanes.

This hurricane season has been exceptionally busy with an unusual number of major hurricanes — five so far.

There have also been three different Category 4 hurricanes to make a U.S. landfall — Harvey, Irma and Maria. That's never happened since we started keeping records.

There's a little more than a month and a half to go in what's been a remarkable hurricane season, and fortunately, there's currently no sign of Philippe behind Ophelia.