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Subject: E10) What are the average, most, and least tropical cyclones
occurring in each basin?
Contributed by Chris Landsea and Sandy Delgado
Record number of storms by basin
Based on data from 1981-2010
(1981/82 to 2010/2011 for the Southern Hemisphere):
| | Tropical Storm or stronger (greater than 17 m/s sustained winds) |
Hurricane/Typhoon/Severe Tropical Cyclone (greater than 33 m/s sustained winds) |
| Basin | Most | Least | Average | Most | Least | Average |
| Atlantic* | 28 | 4 | 12.1 | 15 | 2 | 6.4 |
| NE Pacific** | 28 | 8 | 16.6 | 16 | 3 | 8.9 |
| NW Pacific | 35 | 14 | 26.0 | 23 | 7 | 16.5 |
| N Indian | 10 | 2 | 4.8 | 5 | 0 | 1.5 |
| SW Indian | 14 | 4 | 9.3 | 8 | 1 | 5.0 |
| Aus SE Indian | 16 | 3 | 7.5 | 8 | 1 | 3.6 |
| Aus SW Pacific | 20 | 4 | 9.9 | 12 | 1 | 5.2 |
| Globally | 102 | 69 | 86.0 | 59 | 34 | 46.9 |
* Note that the data includes subtropical storms in the Atlantic basin
numbers.
(Neumann 1993)
** Note that the data includes storms and hurricanes that formed
in the Central Pacific.
Starting in 1944, systematic aircraft reconnaissance was
commenced for monitoring both tropical cyclones and disturbances
that had the potential to develop into tropical cyclones. This
is why bothNeumann et al. (1993)
and Landsea (1993) recommend
utilizing data since 1944 for computing climatological
statistics. However, for tropical cyclones striking the
USA East and Gulf coasts - because of highly populated coast lines,
data with good reliability extends back to around 1899. Thus, the
following records hold for the entire Atlantic basin (from
1944-present) and for the USA coastline (1899-present):
| Category | Maximum | Minimum |
| Named storms | 28
(2005) | 4
(1983) |
| Hurricanes | 15
(2005) | 2
(1982) |
| Major Hurricanes | 8
(1950) | 0
(many times,1994 last) |
| USA landfalling named storms | 9
(2004) | 1
(many,2010) |
| USA landfalling hurricanes | 6 +
(1916,1985,2004,2005) | 0
(many,2010) |
| USA landfalling major hurricanes | 4
(2005) | 0
(many,2010) |
+ 1886 is recorded as the most active hurricane season for the
continental USA with 7 landfalling hurricanes.
For the Northeast Pacific, the records stand at maximums of
28 tropical storms/hurricanes in 1992 and 16 hurricanes in
1990 and 1992. Reliable records go back in this basin to around 1966
when geostationary satellite coverage began.
For the Northwest Pacific, the peak year stands at 1964 with
39 tropical storms, 26 of which became typhoons. Reliable
records for this basin begin around 1960.
Last updated May 31, 2011
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