Most Americans are under the impression that the Atlantic Ocean is the world’s hotbed of hurricane activity. The Pacific Ocean has nearly 4 times the number of hurricanes as the Atlantic, but most remain out to sea, never producing landfall. So for Americans, most hurricanes of note occur on the Eastern Seaboard and also the Gulf of Mexico’s shores.
The average number of intense tropical storms in the North Atlantic is about 10 per year. About half of those turn into hurricanes and two of those will turn out to be “intense.” The hurricane season within the North Atlantic begins on about June 1st and ends on Nobember 30th. Most hurricanes form among August fifteenth and October fifteenth.
Over time, scientists have seen patterns to the way hurricanes occur. The Atlantic Multidecadal Oscillation is usually a fifty to seventy year cycle for Atlantic hurricanes. This creates a graph on a 50 to 70 year frame that shows hurricane occurrences over time as they peak and valley (have a lot more or less). We are presently inside the middle of a peak series, which began in 1995. It’ll end in about 2020.
The areas most likely to be hit by hurricanes are hard to judge, outside of generic terms like “Mid-Atlantic” and “Gulf Coast.” Many hurricanes make landfall but do little damage, but hurricanes have been doing much more damage (measured in dollar figures) for the past few decades because populations in coastal regions have become much more densely packed.
Florida takes a lot of hurricane harm due to its location and shape. If you reside in the state of Florida, you will really want hurricane shutters miami to protect your home. It has more coastline than any other state (coast:landmass) and its coastlines run along both the Atlantic seaboard and the Gulf. Even storms which don’t actually make landfall in Florida often skirt the coast, sending wind, rain, and high waves into Florida’s coast.
The states that get hit the hardest are often those directly north of Florida, however. West of Florida, into the Gulf Coast, nonetheless, a lot of states are sheltered by Florida’s projection into the sea and most hurricanes make landfall further east in Louisiana, Mississippi, and Texas.
The intensity of a hurricane is measured by the Saffir-Simpson Scale for Atlantic Hurricanes (usually referred to as “Saffir-Simpson”). On the scale, category 1 hurricanes have a wind speed of 74 to 95 miles per hour and a possible damage scale of one, with most damage happening to shrubbery, small trees, mobile homes, etc.
From the category 1, the scale goes up to 5 with a level 5 storm being catastrophic, with winds over 155 miles per hour. Most storms that cause enough damage to make the nightly news are category two to three storms and most hurricanes that make landfall inside the Atlantic are category 1-3 storms.
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