If you go to the Webpenny list and click on NOAA, you get the National Hurricane Center's NOAA chart from which Pennyweb got their data.
This page is not a list of all major landfall hurricanes, just some notable ones. As
the page you were linked points out, it lists,
noaa site writes:
Number of hurricanes by Saffir-Simpson Category to strike the mainland U.S. each decade.
And as far as major hurricanes go:
quote:
1940s: 10
1950s: 8
1960s: 6
1970s: 4
1980s: 5
1990s: 5
A pretty clear downward trend.
However, I see from your chart here that it is listing all major hurricanes, not designating the landfall ones, or have I missed something?
Yes, you missed something, like the title,
the noaa site writes:
U.S. Hurricane
Strikes by Decade
and the subtitle
the noaa site writes:
Number of hurricanes by Saffir-Simpson Category to strike the mainland U.S. each decade.
It is the landfall ones which our debate has been about.
It is the landfall ones the list documents, contrary to webpennys.
What do you think is the purpose of the NOAA list which Webpenny linked?
I'd say it was a list of historical hurricanes. It doesn't actually say what criteria would get a hurricane on that list, so we are left guessing.