Late starting hurricane season now more than caught up

MIAMI, FLORIDA - It took the 2002 Atlantic Hurricane season longer than any on record to produce its first hurricane, but experts note this stormy September already has the season no fewer than four named storms ahead of average. <br> <br> Not until Sept. 10 did Gustav, the seventh named storm of the year, graduate from tropical storm status by generating top sustained winds of more than 74 mph, the threshold at which tropical storms become hurricanes. <br> <br> That tardy event came just one day later than the formation in 1984 of Hurricane Diana, the previous record for latest arriving first hurricane of the annual Atlantic Hurricane season that runs June through November. <br> <br> ``The late start is one of the significant features of this season. We had to wait until the G-storm, Gustav, for hurricane force winds,&#39;&#39; said Colin McAdie, a research meteorologist at the National Hurricane Center in Miami. ``It turns out that it means very little as far as the remainder of the season.&#39;&#39; <br> <br> In the two weeks since then, however, Gustav has been followed by Tropical Storms Hanna, Isidore which briefly became a hurricane Josephine, Kyle and Lili. <br> <br> Three of those storms were still active Wednesday. <br> <br> Isidore was whirling toward New Orleans from the Gulf of Mexico after the storm whipped through parts of Mexico&#39;s Yucatan peninsula, killing at least two people. A weakened Lili was heading for Hispaniola after killing a mother and three of her children in a mudslide in St. Vincent and the Grenadines. <br> <br> Out in the Atlantic more than 600 miles southeast of Bermuda, Tropical Storm Kyle looked ready to become the third hurricane of the season. <br> <br> An odd hurricane season? <br> <br> ``Not really,&#39;&#39; according to Max Mayfield, the hurricane center&#39;s director. ``The peak storm period of the season runs from mid August through the end of October. What&#39;s unusual is to have four storms at one time.&#39;&#39; <br> <br> Last year, Mayfield pointed out, 11 of the Atlantic hurricane season&#39;s 15 named storms came after September 1. <br> <br> ``There&#39;s no good correlation between when the season really gets started,&#39;&#39; he said, ``and when it&#39;s going to end.&#39;&#39; <br> <br> Further proof of that, he said, was the hurricane season of 1984, which only had its first storm at the end of August, then went on to produce a total of 13 named storms, including five hurricanes. <br> <br> ``I remember working Christmas Eve that year,&#39;&#39; on Hurricane Lilly, Mayfield recalled. Lilly fell apart before reaching the Caribbean island of Hispaniola. <br> <br> McAdie&#39;s forecast for the rest of the hurricane season? <br> <br> ``The real answer is that we don&#39;t know yet,&#39;&#39; he acknowledged. ``Get back to us at Thanksgiving.&#39;&#39;