12 Sep 2007 Four of the Continental U.S.’s 15 Longest Hurricane-Free Periods Occurred Since 1983, Despite Global Warming Alarms

David Ridenour takes another look at hurricane records:

Global warming alarmists have repeatedly warned us that if we don’t act now to stop global warming, we place our lives at increased risk.

Amanda Staudt, a climate scientist with the National Wildlife Federation, for example, wrote: “Many American coastal communities may face more intense storms as the oceans continue to warm in the decades…”

Others, such as Greg Holland of the National Center for Atmospheric Research, claim that global warming is a “major factor in the increasing number of Atlantic hurricanes.”

Since the planet has warmed since the end of the Little Ice Age in the mid-19th Century, one might expect, based on Staudt’s and Holland’s warnings, to have seen a rise in — I don’t know — maybe the frequency and intensity of storms hitting American communities.

But we haven’t.

In fact, right now, the continental United States is in the midst of its fifteenth longest sustained period without a hurricane strike. (For purposes of this post, a “hurricane strike” refers to a hurricane affecting the continental U.S. The eye of the hurricane may not necessarily have made landfall, but there will have been hurricane force winds on land.)

It is not the first such extended hurricane strike-free period in recent years.

In fact, four out of the 15 longest periods without hurricane strikes (that’s about 27%) have occurred since 1983 — when the planet was presumably in full overheat mode. Lengthy strike-free periods extended through 1983 (1105 days, ending with Hurricane Alicia), 1995 (700 days, ending with Hurricane Erin), 2002 (1084 days, ending with Hurricane Lili) and 2007 (688 days and counting).

Four out of the longest 15 strike-free periods occurred in the second half of the 19th Century. Prolonged periods of inactivity extended through 1865 (1412 days, ending with the Sabine River-Lake Calcasieu Hurricane), 1873 (716 days, ending with a Florida strike from an unnamed hurricane), 1885 (718 days, ending with strikes in South Carolina, North Carolina, Georgia, and Florida from an unnamed hurricane) and 1893 (731 days, ending with the Midnight Storm Hurricane).

The remaining seven periods were spread out between 1903 and 1974.

Particularly striking — in a strike-free sense, that is — is that two of the five longest periods of U.S. mainland strike inactivity have occurred over the past 24 years. The five longest periods without strikes include: 1865, 1415 days; 1983,1105 days; 2002, 1084 days; 1932, 1050 days and 1974, 812 days.

I wonder…

If hurricanes are more intense or frequent in the ocean, but don’t hit our communities, do they make a sound?

They won’t need to… global warming alarmists will make more than enough sound on their own.

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Labels: Climate, Environment, Liberals