Weinkle et al. 2012 is now online at the Journal of Climate. I provided a
summary of the paper a few months ago when it was accepted, including these factoids:
- Over 1970 to 2010 the globe averaged about 15 TC landfalls per year
- Of those 15, about 5 are intense (Category 3, 4 or 5)
- 1971 had the most global landfalls with 32, far exceeding the second place, 25 in 1996
- 1978 had the fewest with 7
- 2011 tied for second place for the fewest global landfalls with 10 (and 3 were intense, tying 1973, 1981 and 2002)
- 1999 had the most intense TC landfalls with 9
- 1981 had the fewest intense TC landfalls with zero
- There have been only 8 intense TC landfalls globally since 2008 (2009-2011), very quiet but not unprecedented (two unique 3-year periods saw only 7 intense landfalls)
- The US is currently in the midst of the longest streak ever recorded without an intense hurricane landfall
Here is the abstract:
Historical global tropical cyclone landfalls (PDF)
Jessica Weinkle, Ryan Maue and Roger Pielke, Jr.
Journal of Climate http://dx.doi.org/10.1175/JCLI-D-11-00719.1
In recent decades, economic damage from tropical cyclones (TCs) around the world has increased dramatically. Scientific literature published to date finds that the increase in losses can be explained entirely by societal changes (such as increasing wealth, structures, population, etc) in locations prone to tropical cyclone landfalls, rather than by changes in annual storm frequency or intensity. However, no homogenized dataset of global tropical cyclone landfalls has been created that might serve as a consistency check for such economic normalization studies. Using currently available historical TC best-track records, we have constructed a global database focused on hurricane-force strength landfalls. Our analysis does not indicate significant long-period global or individual basin trends in the frequency or intensity of landfalling TCs of minor or major hurricane strength. This evidence provides strong support for the conclusion that increasing damage around the world during the past several decades can be explained entirely by increasing wealth in locations prone to TC landfalls, which adds confidence to the fidelity of economic normalization analyses.
Enjoy!
