Abstract
During the 2004 and 2005 hurricane seasons, Charlie, Jeanne, Francis, Ivan, Dennis, Katrina, and Rita destroyed property worth more than $200B and killed nearly 1400 people in the US. These disasters totaled about twice the destruction that occurred on September 11, 2001, but claimed fewer than half as many lives. Falling as they did at the end of an anomalous 33-year respite from devastating tropical-cyclone landfalls (Andrew of 1992 and Hugo of 1989 excepted) these catastrophes seemed to be harbingers of increased human and economic losses to tropical cyclones in North America. During the last two hurricane seasons, what were the relative roles of thriving coastal development, cyclic natural changes in climate, anthropogenic planetary warming, and simple bad luck? Analysis of the climatology of hurricane occurrence, landfalls, and impacts from the preceding 104 hurricane seasons provides a context within which to address this question.