SPECIAL REPORT: The Increasing Frequency of Major Hurricanes Making Landfall on the USA

SPECIAL REPORT:
The Increasing Frequency of Major Hurricanes Making Landfall on the USA...
(A WebPennys.com Exclusive Report)

Last year... in 2004... 4 major Hurricanes slammed the coast of Florida... each one of these Hurricanes was a minimum Cat 3 when it made landfall, and one, Hurricane Charley was actually a Cat 4... it was a historic occurrence... one that many people thought of as a 1-of event, or a fluke.

This year, there has already been 3 Hurricanes make landfall on the USA... 2 of these Hurricanes (Katrina and Rita) have both reached Cat 5 levels, another historic event in itself.

The list of historic major Hurricanes making landfall recorded by NOAA reads like this... (note that NOAA hasn't updated their page yet to include the 2005 storms... which I've included below)...

1900	Galveston Hurricane
1919	Atlantic-Gulf Hurricane
1926	Great Miami Hurricane
1928	San Felipe-Okeechobee Hurricane
1935	Florida Keys Labor Day Hurricane
1938	New England Hurricane
1944	Great Atlantic Hurricane
1954	Hurricane Carol
1954	Hurricane Edna
1954	Hurricane Hazel
1955	Hurricane Connie
1955	Hurricane Diane
1957	Hurricane Audrey
1960	Hurricane Donna
1969	Hurricane Camille
1972	Hurricane Agnes
1983	Hurricane Alicia
1988	Hurricane Gilbert
1989	Hurricane Hugo
1992	Hurricane Andrew
1995	Hurricane Opal
1998	Hurricane Mitch
1999	Hurricane Floyd
2000	Hurricane Keith
2001	Hurricane Iris
2003	Hurricane Isabel
2004	Hurricane Charley
2004	Hurricane Frances
2004	Hurricane Ivan
2004	Hurricane Jeanne
2005	Hurricane Dennis
2005	Hurricane Katrina
2005	Hurricane Rita

When considering the data... even if you completely ignore Global Warming speculation, and look purely at the stats by decade... you'll see the USA is currently caught-up in a increasing trend of major hurricanes making landfall on it's shores... and the current trend being established over the past 2 decades would seem to indicate that the odds of frequency diminishing back to pre-1970 levels anytime soon would be somewhat remote...

Data Source: NOAA

NOAA's own historical data clearly shows an increasing trend (by decade) since the 1970's of major hurricanes making landfall on the USA, especially once viewed in graph form... but what is even more alarming than the decade-by-decade comparison... is the current trend being established in just this decade... notice how the number of major hurricanes striking the USA this decade HAVE MORE THAN DOUBLED WHEN COMPARED TO NOAA's 1990's DATA... WHAT IS SIGNIFICANT ABOUT THE DATA IS, WE ARE BARELY HALF-WAY THROUGH THE CURRENT DECADE... also note how the decade of the 1990's was the 2nd busiest Hurricane season in the last century as recorded in NOAA's own Hurricane History (excluding the current decade).

So while the cause of the increase in Hurricanes is debatable... what's not debatable is the increasingly frequency of major Hurricanes making landfall on the USA.

By using the stats from just 2004 and 2005... if those trends follow thru... we could have as many as 12 or more major Hurricanes hit the USA before this decade is through... which would send a very crippling blow to the worlds strongest economy.

This developing trend of major Hurricanes making landfall on the USA is potentially very bad for the US economy... this is because the paths of the Hurricanes are concentrated along the southern Gulf Coast and Southeastern Coast of the US... where unfortunately, significant energy, shipping, and transportation infrastructure are at risk... some appreciation of which you can feel from this graphic below showing Gulf Coast Oil Rig locations, and the paths of Rita and Katrina...

Data Source: RigZone.com

You can also see the path of Hurricane Ivan in 2004 also ravaged important oil producing area's of the Gulf Coast... Ivan's path made landfall not very far East from where Hurricane Katrina made landfall.