Where will hurricanes most likely hit?
Most Americans think that the Atlantic Ocean is a hotbed of hurricane activity. Interestingly, however, the Pacific Ocean has practically four instances the number of hurricanes that the Atlantic does, but most of them by no means make landfall, staying out at sea. So for the U.S., most hurricanes of note occur on the Eastern Seaboard plus the Gulf of Mexico's shores.
The North Atlantic has about ten intense tropical storms with hurricane prospective per year. About half of the storms turn into hurricanes and two of those will probably be labeled “intense.” The North Atlantic hurricane season starts on June 1st and ends on November thirtieth with most hurricanes forming between August 15th and October fifteenth, “peaking” on September 10th.
Most scientists see a pattern in the way hurricanes occur over time. Atlantic hurricanes, for instance, seem to oscillate on a 50 to 70 year cycle known as the Atlantic Multidecadal Oscillation. This oscillation is often a peak and valley graph of hurricanes over time, beginning at the typical and going up and down every single year. We are at present in a peak series on that graph. The peak began in 1995 and will end in 2020, or thereabouts.
Predicting where a hurricane will hit is difficult to complete beyond general terms like “Mid-Atlantic” and “Gulf Coast.” Hurricanes make landfall all the time and do little comparative damage, but recently, the amount of damage has increased dramatically because of the fast-growing populations of people crowding the sea coasts.
The State of Florida takes the brunt of most hurricanes, tropical storms, and disturbances because of its location. Anyone living in Florida surely will want hurricane shutters miami. Comparing total landmass of coasts, Florida has a lot more coastline than any other state (it is bordered on 3 sides). Even storms which do not actually make landfall in Florida often skirt the coast, sending wind, rain, and high waves into Florida's coast.
The states that get hit the hardest are often those directly north of Florida, however. Within the Gulf, the states directly west of Florida are often sheltered by it while states further in such as Texas and Mississippi develop into targets instead.
Hurricane intensity is measured on the Saffir-Simpson Scale for Atlantic Hurricanes (or “Saffir-Simpson”). On that scale, a category 1 hurricane has a wind speed of about 74 to 95 miles per hour and a low damage scale, with most of it happening to shrubbery, small trees, mobile homes, and so forth.
From there, the categories go upwards to a level 5, catastrophic storm (winds over 155mph) which has a harm rating of 500, or 500 instances as intense as a category 1. The majority of storms fall into the two to three categories and practically all storms that make landfall from the Atlantic are category 1-3 storms.