This year, we've managed to make it all the way up to Tony, for a total of 19 storms.
While that's a long way from the 2005 record of 31 storms (and 4 of those were added after the season), it's good to remember a few things.
First, we'll look at the seasons following (taken from the NHC database):
2006 10 total (5 TS, 5 Hurr)
2007 17 total (1 STS, 2 TD, 8 TS, 6 Hurr)
2008 17 total (1 TD, 8 TS, 8 Hurr)
2009 11 total (2 TD, 6 TS, 3 Hurr)
2010 21 total (2 TD, 7 TS, 12 Hurr)
2011 20 total (1 TD, 12 TS, 7 Hurr)
Wow. For all the seasons from 2006-2011, there was a total of 96 tropical storms. Of those, only 41 made it to Hurricane strength. 41/96 = .427, or less than half.
Now, then, on to the strengths.
Remember, there were those after the 2005 season that said we'd see stronger and more frequent storms like Katrina.
2006 - 3 Cat 1's, and 2 Cat 3's. Neither of the Cat 3's hit the Mainland US.
2007 - 4 Cat 1's, and 2 Cat 5's. Neither of the Cat 5's hit the Mainland US.
2008 - 3 Cat 1's, 1 Cat 3, and 4 Cat 4's. The strongest winds to hit the Mainland US was Ike (hit as a high end Cat 2 with 95mph winds). Still had no Majors hit the US.
2009 - One 4, one 3 and one 2. No Majors hit the Mainland US.
As a running recap, then for the 4 years following 2005, we saw 22 of the 41 previously mentioned hurricanes. There were 10 Cat 1's (10/22 = .454), 1 Cat 2 (1/22 = .045), 4 Cat 3's (4/22 = .181), 5 Cat 4's (5/22 = .227) and 2 Cat 5's (2/22 = .090).
Overall, half of the hurricanes were 1's and 2's, and half were Majors. And none of the Majors had a US mainland landfall.
Found the time to look at the years of 2010 and 2011, to see what those 19 hurricanes did.
2010 - 3 cat 1's, 4 Cat 2's, 1 Cat 3 and 4 Cat 4's. Nothing hit the US as a Major.
2011 - 3 cat 1's, 2 Cat 3's and 2 Cat 4's. Nothing hit the US as a major.
So the years of 2010 and 2011 accounted for 19 of the 41 previously mentioned hurricanes. There were 6 Cat 1's (6/19 = .315), 4 Cat 2's (4/19 = .210), 3 Cat 3's (3/19 = .157), 6 Cat 4's (6/19 = .315) and NO Cat 5's.
That means that of the 19 hurricanes, 10 were Cat 1 or 2, and 9 were Majors.
For the whole period, then?
Slight edge to non-Majors (21/20).
Last cat 5 of the period was Felix in 2007. Last Major to make landfall in the US was Wilma, 2005.
Even if you were to carry it through to 2012 (and the season's not over yet) with the 9 TS and 10 Hurricanes (9/1), there has STILL been no Cat 5's, and no Majors hitting the US.
Raises the edge to non-Majors even more (30/21).
So while people may look as Sandy (and last year's Irene) as truly devestating storms, they were not Majors.
And if people are going to rightly say that a single storm cannot be tied to CAGW, that you need to see the trend, fine.
So far, as of today, it's been 2565 days since the US has been hit by a hurricane with sustained winds greater than 110mph.
Of course, that trend (along with the decided lack of Cat 5 storms for the last 5 seasons) cannot be blamed on CAGW either.
Neither can the higher number of non-majors over majors since 2005.
Where have all the Majors gone?
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Updated: 7:19 PM GMT on November 01, 2012
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