Where is the International Date Line?

The unusually warm waters of the Pacific Ocean have helped spawn three hurricanes in the Pacific Ocean.

And according to Scott Bachmeier of the Cooperative Institute for Meteorological Satellite Studies, this is something we haven’t seen before: three hurricanes rated at category-4 swirling east of the dateline at one time.

You can see them lined up in the screenshot above, from an animation of satellite images. Click it and be mesmerized by this synoptic view of hurricanes Kilo, Ignacio and Jimena all kicking it up together in a kind of cyclonic chorus line.

Here’s another view of the three hurricanes, acquired by NASA’s Terra satellite on Saturday, Aug. 29:

If you look carefully at this image, you should spot the Big Island of Hawaii to the northwest of Hurricane Ignacio. The latest forecast track has the cyclone just skimming by the Hawaiian Islands without making landfall. Let’s hope that forecast holds up.

Meanwhile, Jimena is following in Ignacio’s wake. The forecast track has this cyclone beginning to curve on Tuesday and Wednesday on a path that should steer it clear of Hawaii. But it is too soon to say for sure.