Most Americans think that the Atlantic Ocean is a hotbed of hurricane activity. The Pacific has nearly four times the number of hurricanes as the Atlantic, but most stay out to sea, never making landfall. So for the U.S., most hurricanes of note happen on the Eastern Seaboard and the Gulf of Mexico’s shores.

The North Atlantic has about 10 intense tropical storms that could potentially be hurricanes every year. About half of those turn into hurricanes and 2 of those will become “intense. The hurricane season in the North Atlantic begins on about June 1 and ends on Nobember 30th. Most hurricanes form between August fifteenth and October 15th.

Scientists have seen a pattern to the way hurricanes occur over time. The Atlantic Multidecadal Oscillation is a 50 to 70 year cycle for Atlantic hurricanes. This time series shows a peak and valley graph of hurricane occurrences over time, starting at the mean (average) and going up or down every year. We’re currently in a peak series on that graph. The peak began in 1995 and will end in 2020, or thereabouts.

Predicting where a hurricane will hit is hard to do beyond general terms like “Mid-Atlantic and “Gulf Coast. Many hurricanes make landfall but do little damage, but hurricanes have been doing much more damage (measured in dollar figures) for the past few decades because populations in coastal regions have become much more densely packed.

Florida State takes the brunt of most hurricanes, tropical storms, and disturbances because of its location. Anyone living in Florida should definitely consider getting hurricane shutters miami.  Comparing total landmass of coasts, Florida has more coastline than any other state (it is bordered on 3 sides). Even those storms that do not make landfall in Florida, but move into the Gulf, will often cause damage just by passing by.

The states that get hit the hardest are often those directly north of Florida, however. In the Gulf of Mexico, the states directly west of Florida are often sheltered by it while states further in such as Texas and Mississippi become targets instead.

The intensity of a hurricane is measured by the Saffir-Simpson Scale for Atlantic Hurricanes (usually referred to as “Saffir-Simpson). On the scale, category 1 hurricanes have a wind speed of 74 to 95 miles per hour and a potential damage scale of 1, with most damage happening to shrubbery, small trees, mobile homes, etc.

From the category 1, the scale goes up to 5 with a level 5 storm being catastrophic, with winds over 155mph. Nearly all storms that make landfall in the Atlantic are category 1-3 storms with most being in the two to three categories.