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Is that a Typhane or a hurricoon?
One of four huge tropical storms spinning in the north Pacific has caused a stir among meteorologists by crossing the International Date Line near Hawaii - triggering a title change in the process.
Hurricane Kilo not only jumped ahead to a September 2 date in crossing the arbitrary line, it also reverted to the name Typhoon Kilo.
While hurricanes, typhoons and cyclones "are all the same weather phenomenon", NASA said in a post to its website, the storms get a different title depending on the region they affect.
Such events in the north-eastern Pacific and the Atlantic are known as hurricanes, while they get dubbed typhoons in the north-west Pacific sector and cyclones in the South Pacific and Indian Ocean.
#Kilo is a hurricane and a typhoon occurring on two different days: http://t.co/hGgsuh2v04 pic.twitter.com/admvEN42Uj— Brian L Kahn (@blkahn)
September 1, 2015
Kilo, now a category 3, is posing no threat to land. It is expected to strengthen to a category 4 again in coming days.
Along with Hurricanes Ignacio and Jimena, Kilo was part of the first trio of category 4-strength tropical storms recorded in the Pacific at the same time.
The latest satellite image shows the three have been joined by a tropical depression TD 14E that has formed off the Mexican coast.
The powerful storms are expected to contribute to strengthening of the El Nino in the Pacific by further stalling or disrupting easterly trade winds, allowing more heat to build up in the east of the basin, climatologists say.
The current El Nino is already the strongest since the monster event of 1997-98, and is likely to be at least among the four strongest since reliable records began around 1950, the World Meteorological Organisation said on Tuesday.