Stunning Florida stat

[WEATHER53]

At least stunning to me and do not want to take thunder from poster who did all the work. I posted a thread at WWBB asking how far back did we have to go for 4 total category 2+ to have effected Florida considering we had 4 this season. I figured late 1980's at the farthest, the answer is all the way back to 1968, 36 years!!, to have had four total. Astounding to me, I cannot post all the stats but check out the post at WWBB started by me entitled "How far back for Florida"

[Guest]

Huh..4 CAT 2 + storms did NOT hit Fla in'68.

1 hurricane CAT 1 & the rest were weak storms & TDs

[Guest]

In 1886 there were 3 CAT 2s that hit around the FLA Big Bend area & another near hit in South Fla..That might be the previous high.

[WEATHER53]

What I am saying is how far back do we have to get to get 4 cumulative cat 2 and apparently the answer is all the way back to 68, there were other years after 68 but the "4th" of that tally happened in 1968. Also, 1964 had 3 cat 2+ for Florida.

[Guest]

Actually 95 had 4 storms.

TS ALLISON
HURRICAN ERIN (2 landfalls)
TS JERRY
HURRICANE OPAL

[panichead4469]

yeah, but if you're going to include tropical storms, you should throw bonnie in there for good measure....

[Guest]

True.. but I still dont get the 68 thing though.

[Ixolib]

In 1886 there were 3 CAT 2s that hit around the FLA Big Bend area & another near hit in South Fla..That might be the previous high.

I wonder if that's why the Big Bend area has that big bend!!

[Guest]

In 1886 there were 3 CAT 2s that hit around the FLA Big Bend area & another near hit in South Fla..That might be the previous high.

I wonder if that's why the Big Bend area has that big bend!!

[SouthernWx]

What WEATHER53 meant is that ONLY 4 significant hurricanes (cat-2 or higher) impacted the Florida peninsula between 1966 and 2003....NOT INCLUDING the panhandle (I'm the one who posted it at WWBB).

Landfalling Florida peninsula "significant" hurricanes between 1966 and 2003:

Oct 1968...Gladys...cat-2
Sep 1979...David....cat-2
Aug 1992...Andrew...cat-5
Sep 1998...Georges..cat-2

Only 4 significant hurricanes...and only 1 major hurricane in a 38 year period.


Compare that to the period 1900-1965...when 31 significant hurricanes impacted the Florida peninsula...including 19 major hurricanes (or a return period of once per 2 yrs for a cat-2 or higher landfall, or once per 3.5 years for a major landfalling hurricane).

I haven't extensively researched cat-2 hurricanes of the 1845-1899 period, but have major landfalling hurricanes of that era, and found 13 major hurricanes which impacted the Florida peninsula during that 54 yr period of record).

Note: please don't utilize the Unisys site regarding intensity for hurricanes prior to 1970. The intensity database is unbelievably incorrect on many hurricanes . My data comes from official NHC sources; including recently updated information on hurricanes between 1851-1910...by the AOML/ HRD's "HURDAT" re-analysis project (the same committee that upgraded Andrew to cat-5 in 2002).

[pojo]

I just did research on that... 1886, 1888, and 1889 all had 3 landfalling hurricanes. 2004 had 3 landfalling (canes) and 1 brush. Other years had 2 landfall and numerous brush.