HURRICANE SEASON 2008

TOUGH YEAR

Six consecutive Atlantic tropical storms and hurricanes hit the United States from late July to mid-September, causing billions of dollars in damage. Four in a row swamped Haiti, killing hundreds of people.

Gustav and Ike crushed Cuba before heading off to the U.S. Gulf Coast, where they rampaged through oil and gas fields.

At this point, just after the statistical peak of the six-month season, there is no comparison to 2005, the all-time record-breaker with 28 storms, when forecasters ran out of storm names and had to resort to the Greek alphabet. That year spawned Hurricane Katrina, which devastated New Orleans.

On September 18 of 2005, Rita formed. It was the 17th storm of the season and eventually became a 180 mph (290 kph) monster, one of the strongest hurricanes in history.

But not even in 2005 did six storms in a row hit the United States.

In fact, the U.S. National Hurricane Center says that so far it has not found another year since records began in 1851 in which the United States was hit by six tropical cyclones in a row, but it was still digging through databases.

The tendency to target U.S. shores is partly due to the atmospheric conditions that steer hurricanes. In some years, many of the storms that charge across the ocean eventually curve harmlessly northward without reaching the United States.

"We've had an extensive area of high pressure in the middle and upper atmosphere that has helped to steer the hurricanes west at lower latitudes," Bell said. "They have not recurved into the Atlantic."

(Editing by Michael Christie and Ross Colvin)