Figure 3: Annual number of intense hurricanes over the
Atlantic basin for the period of reliable record from 1944 to 1996.
The data for
the years 1944-1969 have been revised downward to take into account
the overestimation of intensities during these years. See Landsea
(1993) for details.
The long term (1950-90) average of 2.2 per year
(solid line)
as well as a five year running mean (light curve) are superimposed on
the time series.