or even most intense Atlantic hurricanes to not hit the US?
Like the great hurricane of 1780?
Aside from that one (and the measures of it obviously were not as accurate back then) , most of the most intense Atlantic hurricanes did hit the US. A quick search gave me the 11 most intense Atlantic hurricanes and only one, Hurricane Dean tied for 8th in peak intensity, and by itself at 4th for intensity at landfall, didn't hit the US.
There has been a substantial increase in most measures of Atlantic hurricane activity since the early 1980s, the period during which high-quality satellite data are available.
Well obviously once you get data, you get more interesting data points.
Other measures though show no such upward trend. (See below)
How about the most intense hurricanes to not hit the US
How about cyclones, tropical storms and total cyclonic energy world wide whether or not it hits the US.
Note: Above chart says "Hurricanes" but its actually a measure of tropical storms and tropical cyclones across the globe. The cyclones would be called hurricanes if they happened in the Atlantic but they are called typhoons or cyclones elsewhere.
Also from my earlier post
That's total cyclone energy. Higher numbers could be more of them, or great average intensity or a bit of each. It does end in 2009. So perhaps its gone up since then (hasn't for the US, but this is a world wide measure).
But even ignoring that information, and for the sake of argument taking your sources statement as true beyond a shadow of a doubt, it would still be true that Harvey is weather not climate, and even in the context of climate changing making more hurricanes happen (or more of the more serious types) it would still not be reasonably possible to tie Harvey in to climate change. Individual hurricanes are weather not climate, and very intense ones can happen even during periods of lower than normal temperatures. |
