2001; Comment on "Changes in the rates of North Atlantic major hurricane activity during the 20th Century

• Main Author: Christopher W. Landsea
• Other Authors: The Pennsylvania State University CiteSeerX Archives
• Format: Text
• Language: English
• Subjects: North Atlantic; North Atlantic oscillation
• Online Access: http://citeseerx.ist.psu.edu/viewdoc/summary?doi=10.1.1.207.3429; http://www.aoml.noaa.gov/hrd/Landsea/Landsea_georeslettersJul2001.pdf

Atlantic major hurricanes have a profound impact on human and natural environments. Understanding and predicting these storms ’ occurrence on daily, intraseasonal, interannual, multidecadal and climatic timescales can be of tremendous benefit and should be pursued vigorously. Elsner et al. [2000] (hereafter as EJN) address multidecadal changes of Atlantic basin major hurricanes- those tropical cyclones with maximum sustained surface winds of at least 50 m/s. However, aspects of EJN analysis are questionable because its treatment of the Atlantic major hurricane database may be erroneous, because its proposed link to the North Atlantic Oscillation is unsubstantiated, and because it fails to cite or acknowledge key earlier studies. Treating the record of Atlantic major hurricanes since 1900 as trustworthy in its entirety is very questionable. The