Right now in the USA, we’re in the middle of multiple different droughts in landfalling hurricanes. That means that statistically, we should be due for a major storm soon – and with more coastal development having cropped up in the United States than ever before, a weather event like that could spell out a major disaster for some of the largest cities in the country.
As we’ve discussed before on our blogs, major hurricanes are ones that are classified as Category 3 or higher on the Saffir-Simpson scale. Going by this rating system, not a single hurricane of this size has hit the Gulf Coast or the East Coast of the United States in over ten years. (For perspective, Hurricane Sandy, which wrought havoc on New England in 2012, had already fallen down to the classification of post-tropical storm by the time it touched ground on the East Coast.) Even scarier for those of us who live in Florida is the fact that we haven’t had a hurricane in this state since 2005, which is not only rare (we’re normally hit by at least seven hurricanes in any given decade), but a historically long time between hurricanes in our region of the country. And records show that there hasn’t been a major hurricane in any of the states next to the Gulf of Mexico for three years, again a historic span of time. So where are the hurricanes, and when will they finally arrive?
According to a number of different scientists, our hurricane drought is actually not a result of weather factors combining to keep us safe and dry, and it has nothing to do with global warming. They say that the drought is actually just a weird stretch of really good luck that has lead to all of the storms that threatened to turn into hurricanes upon landfall turning into tropical storms or getting blown out to sea before making contact with our coastlines.
Even so, from a purely statistical standpoint, this drought is peculiar enough that it could end at any time, and we’re likely closer to than farther away from the next major hurricane to hit the USA. It’s for this reason that it’s imperative to be prepared for the Next Big Storm – so get in touch with us at ParadiseExteriors.comand make sure you’re as ready as you can be.
