Are Hurricanes Getting More Frequent?

Hurricane Sandy who is about to create large problems in north eastern United States has now because of those problems overtaken the upcoming elections as the big media issue.

Quite predictably, some "climate change" alarmists are saying that things like "Sandy" are the result of "climate change, The problem with that theory is that hurricanes have occurred in North America, and certain other parts of the world, since the beginning of human history (and likely for an even longer period of time before it as well), long before any "man made climate change".

It is in fact not even the case that hurricanes have become more frequent. Statistics on hurricane frequency isn't available for most of human history since the Indians of North America didn't keep such statistics, nor was it kept during the first two hundred years of European presence in North America.

However, data exists for the period since 1851, kept by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. And that data shows that during the second half of the 19th century, 1851-1900 there were 97 hurricanes in the United States. In the second half of the 20th century, there were only 73 hurricanes. The decade with the single highest number of hurricanes was the 1880s, when there were 27 hurricances. Since "global warming" is generally believed to have begun around the year 1900, these results are the opposite of what the "climate change" alarmists wants us to believe, yet they are the true results.