30 What are the average, most, and least tropical cyclones occurring in each basin?
Description
This article is from the Storms FAQ, by Chris Landsea landsea@aoml.noaa.gov with numerous contributions by others.
30 What are the average, most, and least tropical cyclones occurring in each basin?
Based on data from 1968-1989 (1968/69 to 1989/90 for the Southern
Hemisphere):
Tropical Storm or stronger Hurricane/Typhoon/Severe Tropical Cyclone
(>17 m/s sustained winds) (>33 m/s sustained winds)
--------------------------------------------------------------------------
Basin Most/Least Average Most/Least Average
Atlantic 18/4 9.7 12/2 5.4
NE Pacific 23/8 16.5 14/4 8.9
NW Pacific 35/19 25.7 24/11 16.0
N Indian 10/1 5.4 6/0 2.5
SW Indian 15/6 10.4 10/0 4.4
SE Indian/Aus 11/1 6.9 7/0 3.4
Aus/SW Pacific 16/2 9.0 11/2 4.3
Globally 103/75 83.7 65/34 44.9
Note that the data includes subtropical storms in the Atlantic basin
numbers. (Neumann 1993)
Starting in 1944, systematic aircraft reconnaissance was commenced for
monitoring both tropical cyclones and disturbances that had the potential
to develop into tropica cyclones. This is why both Neumann et al. (1993)
and Landsea (1993) recommend utilizing data since 1944 for computing
climatological statistics. However, for tropical cyclones striking the
USA East and Gulf coasts - because of highly populated coast lines,
data with good reliability extends back to around 1899. Thus, the
following records hold for the entire Atlantic basin (from 1944-1995) and
for the USA coastline (1899-1995):
Maximum Minimum
Tropical storms/hurricanes: 19*(1995) 4 (1983)
Hurricanes: 12 (1969) 2 (1982)
Intense Hurricanes: 7 (1950) 0 (many times,1994 last)
USA landfalling storms/hurricanes: 8 (1916) 1 (many,1991)
USA landfalling hurricanes: 6 (1916,1985) 0 (many,1994)
USA landfalling intense hurricanes: 3 (1909,33,54) 0 (many,1994)
(*) As a footnote, 1933 is recorded as being the most active of any
Atlantic basin season on record (reliable or otherwise) with 21 tropical
storms and hurricanes.
For the Northeast Pacific, the records stand at maximums of 27 tropical
storms/hurricanes in 1992 and 16 hurricanes in 1990. Reliable records go
back in this basin to around 1966 when geostationary satellite coverage
began.
For the Northwest Pacific, the peak year stands at 1964 with 39 tropical
storms, 26 of which became typhoons. Reliable records for this basin begin
around 1960.
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