Over the last five hurricane seasons, the US has had a total of three hurricane strikes – Irene, Issac and Sandy. This few hurricanes has happened only twice before – in 1984 and 1866.
HURDAT Re-analysis Chronological List of All Hurricanes
The season isn’t over yet – and this could change.
Remember that “Hurricane” Sandy did not actually have hurricane force winds at landfall.
There’s going to be a Caribbean disturbance developing around the 22/23 which should move north toward Florida/Gulf Coast (even the South Carolina part). This one has a chance at becoming a hurricane…
It has been 8 years since Florida has been hit by a hurricane. I think that’s a record too (though we needed the break after 04 and 05).
3 ? Sandy was, per NOAA, “a post-tropical cyclone” when it made landfall:
“Sandy weakened somewhat and then made landfall as a post-tropical cyclone near Brigantine, New Jersey with 70-kt maximum sustained winds.”
From: http://www.nhc.noaa.gov/data/tcr/AL182012_Sandy.pdf
Should be “2.”
As ACR stated, Sandy was not a hurricane at landfall. The NOAA statement is not supported by recorded wind speeds by surface stations on land or offshore buoys. The maximum sustained wind speeds actually recorded were two offshore buoys at NY harbor at 25 meters per second.
Hurricane winds are defined by 33 meters per second sustained for 1 minute intervals. Recorded land speeds were well below the 25 meters per second at the two offshore buoys.
Photos of wind damage are consistent with tropical storm damage at 20 meters per second.
Most of the damage was due to tidal surge at a part of the country that was very poorly prepared for tropical storm damage. Had Sandy struck Florida, no one would have noticed.
NOAA consistently makes mistaken and excessive wind speed projections based on models and aircraft estimates. Only recorded sustained winds actually measured at surface stations are valid scientific data. Insurance companies did not recognize Sandy as a hurricane.