It has been more than two years since any hurricane (Ike) made landfall in the US – one of the longest periods on record without a strike.
But the 1880s (before global climate disruption) were very different – twenty-six hurricanes made landfall.
http://www.aoml.noaa.gov/hrd/hurdat/ushurrlist18512009.txt
Most notable of these was the Indianola, Texas storm.
The Indianola Hurricane of 1886 destroyed the town of Indianola, Texas. It was one of the most intense hurricanes ever to hit the United States.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1886_Indianola_hurricane
Peak wind speeds at landfall were 135 MPH, compared with 110 MPH for Katrina. It was one of six hurricanes which struck the US that year.
Our top experts tell us that this sort of extreme behaviour is due to greenhouse gases. There were no motor cars at that time, so it must have been the back half of horses which were responsible for global climate disruption.
Imagine what the anti-engineering, anti-history crowd would say if we had a repeat now!
Methane, obviously!
Just curious… How many made landfall in the periods 1990 – 1999 and 2000 – 2009?
1991-2000 – 14
2001-2010 – 18