It has been almost 11 years since a hurricane crossed the Florida coastline.
- No such thing as 'we are due' or anything like that
- Last hurricane to hit Florida was Hurricane Wilma in 2005
- No Category 5 hurricane since 2007
Let me preface the rest of what I am going to say with this: This is irrelevant when it comes to the rest of this season or future seasons.
There is no such thing as “we are due” or anything like that. If you flip a coin 10 times and it comes up heads, there is still a 50/50 shot of getting a heads on the 11th flip.
Hurricane Wilma crossed southwest Florida in October 2005 as a major hurricane. That was the last hurricane to hit Florida. It was also the last major hurricane (Category 3-5) to hit the United States coastline.
For some perspective, there have been 145 named storms that have occurred in the Atlantic hurricane basin since the last U.S. major hurricane landfall. The previous record was 69 named storms -- zero hurricanes in Florida.
(Data courtesy of Dr. Philip Klotzbach from Colorado State University)
A record low four hurricanes have hit the United States in the past seven years, yet from 2002-2008, a record 19 hurricanes hit the U.S.
In addition to a lack of hurricanes hitting the coast of Florida, or major hurricanes impacting the United States, there hasn’t been a Category 5 hurricane ANYWHERE in the Atlantic hurricane basin since 2007. This is the longest period of Category 5 inactivity since the period from 1938-1953.
It has now been more than two full years since the last hurricane made U.S. landfall (Arthur on July 4, 2014 in North Carolina).
The longest period on record between U.S. hurricane impacts is 1103 days from Allen in 1980, to Alicia in 1983.
So, what does this all mean? Nothing. Just some interesting weather stats to discuss around the water cooler tomorrow.