3,142 Days Since Last U.S. Major Hurricane Landfall

Drudge Report links to two related stories that form an odd juxtaposition. The first is from The Hill which reports:

President Obama warned Friday that storms like Hurricane Sandy will become more frequent as climate change intensifies.

Compare that with this story from The Washington Post's Capital Weather Gang blog:

The U.S. has been extraordinarily fortunate lately: we have not been witness to the fury of a major hurricane (category 3 or higher) landfall since October 2005 when Wilma hit southwest Florida as a Category 3 storm.

Since the hyper-active 2005 season, the U.S. has had just six Category 1 and 2 hurricane landfalls: Humberto (TX), Ike (TX), Gustav (LA), Dolly (TX), Irene (NC), and Isaac (LA). Sandy was not technically a hurricane at its NJ landfall, and if it were, it would have been a Category 1 storm.

Such a streak, or “drought”, is unprecendented going back to 1900. As of the start of this hurricane season, the span will be 3,142 days since the last U.S. major hurricane landfall.  The previous longest span is about 2½ years shorter!

President Obama has never let the facts get in the way of a good story. As an empiricist, I find the WaPo data speaks for itself.

The WaPo article is a treatise on hurricanes. As a Westerner, I found it contained more than I wanted to know. If you live on the Gulf or East Coast, it should be relevant information.