Results

The quantity of all types of hurricanes was recorded in reference to the time of year in which they form (Table 1). The data was collected from 1850 to 2020 and categorized by month. The data shows that February was the least active month of the year, as only 1 hurricane formed in all 170 years the data was collected from. The number of hurricanes remained less than 10 per month until May. At the start of summer, and beginning of the formal hurricane season, the amount of hurricanes gradually increased until reaching peak development in September, where 916 hurricanes have been observed. Hurricane development remained very active throughout autumn, but decreased steeply into the winter months.

Table 1. Hurricanes observed in the Atlantic by month from 1850 to 2020. A total of 2652 hurricanes are represented.

The quantity of category 5 hurricanes was recorded in reference to the time that the hurricanes formed (Fig. 1). A time interval of 10 years was used to categorize the amount of hurricanes. The data shows that starting in 1920, the quantity of category 5 hurricanes has increased steadily, peaking at 8 in the 2000s. A regression analysis was performed on the data, where a strong relationship was indicated between the decade of formation and the quantity of category 5 hurricanes observed by the R squared value (0.298). A statistically significant interaction between both variables was indicated by the p-value (<0.001).

Figure 1. The change in the amount of category 5 hurricanes formed from the 1910s to the 2010s. Each of the 10 dots represents a decade and includes a regression line.

The path of 2018’s Hurricane Michael was recorded (Fig. 2). Hurricane Michael is the most recent category 5 hurricane to make landfall in the United States. As is typical of hurricanes that make landfall in the United States, Hurricane Michael struck the coast of Florida in the Gulf of Mexico before moving northward across the coastal Southeast states and eventually moving back into the Atlantic Ocean.

Figure 2. The path of 2018’s category 5 Hurricane Michael over land.

The relationship between the amount of all hurricanes and when the hurricanes were observed was recorded (Fig. 3). The data was compiled by decade from 1850 to 2020. Hurricane formation occurred at a moderate rate in the 1850s until peaking in the 1880s. After this point, hurricane formation dropped to a minimum in the 1910s and has increased slowly into the modern day. This data was analyzed through the use of a regression analysis. A low correlation between the increase of hurricane formation in relation to distance from modern day was represented by the R square value. A lack of significance was indicated by the p-value (0.085) by being greater than 0.05.

Figure 3. The changes in hurricane formation from 1850 to 2020. Quantity of hurricanes observed in regards to what decade they were formed in. Each of the 14 dots represents a decade and includes a regression line.