TCS, Powerline ignorantly misread huricane data

[shockingelk]

An analysis by James Glassman at Tech Central Station claims there were many more severe hurricanes in both the 1940's and 1950's than there have been so far in the 2000's.

He manages this by looking at data for the 2000 hurricane season alone (there were three severe hurricanes) and compares it to the 40's and 50's as if that one year alone constituted an entire decade, 2000-2010:

Giant hurricanes are rare, but they are not new. And they are not increasing. To the contrary. Just go to the website of the National Hurricane Center and check out a table that lists hurricanes by category and decade. The peak for major hurricanes (categories 3,4,5) came in the decades of the 1930s, 1940s and 1950s, when such storms averaged 9 per decade. In the 1960s, there were 6 such storms; in the 1970s, 4; in the 1980s, 5; in the 1990s, 5; and for 2001-04, there were 3.

Actually, there have been 21 category 3, 4 or 5 hurricanes so far this decade: http://weather.unisys.com/hurricane/ - the data Glassman uses comes from a report that has this as it's first sentence, which he didn't read or understand:

This version of the Deadliest, Costliest, and Most Intense United States Hurricanes from 1900 to 2000 extends the work of Hebert et al. (1997) through the 2000 season.

Assrocket at Powerline concurs with Glassmaqn's ridiculously flawed analysis,

Of course, facts have never stood in the Left's way. But there is something especially repellent about efforts by left-wingers like Robert Kennedy Jr. to make political hay out of the current natural disaster.

More details ... http://fearofclowns.com/2005/09/idiot-right-wingers-so-wildly-off-mark.html

[hatrack]

1. FUCK James Glassman, FUCK Powerline and FUCK AEI

I didn't miss anyone, did I?

[htuttle]

2. Looks like they got their propaganda operation going...

...before they even started thinking about rescue operations.

[shockingelk]

3. I think Glassman just made a mistake

... a mistake that undermines - no - reverses his thesis.

[kansasblue]

4. Do any of these people have children?

Their children will spit on their graves.

[shockingelk]

5. Do any of these people have diplomas?

... reading glasses?

[Cicero]

6. Ahhh, but how many of those 21 actually hit the U.S.?

The table that Glassman gets his data from is entitled "U.S. Hurricane Strikes by Decade". Not every category 3-5 hurricane from 2000-2005 actually hit the U.S. In fact, some of those that did hit had weakened to below cat 3 before they hit.

Just playing devil's advocate here...

Later,

[shockingelk]

7. It's the wrong data to use ...

Only counting hurricanes that made landfall in the US is does not indicate total hurricane strength. That said, these made landfall at category 3 or greater:

2001:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hurricane_Iris
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hurricane_Michelle

2002:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hurricane_Lili

2003:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hurricane_Isabel

2004:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hurricane_Charley
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hurricane_Ivan

2005:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hurricane_Dennis
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hurricane_Emily
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hurricane_Katrina