Global Tropical Cyclone Landfalls 1970-2017

In 2012, Jessica Weinkle, Ryan Maue and I published a paper that compiled data on landfalls of hurricane-strength tropical cyclones around the world. While many individual basins have data further back in time, a reliable global dataset is available from 1970.

Landfalls are important because these are the storms that cause almost all damage. Our dataset is the only such analysis of landfalling storms. The figure above shows the data updated through 2017 courtesy @RyanMaue.

Some summary stats:

• 2017 saw 18 tropical cyclones make landfall at hurricane strength;
• There were 4 major landfalls, 3 of which were in the Atlantic;
• The long term average is 15.3 total and 4.8 major (medians = 15 and 4);
• 2009-2016 were all below average (or median or less) for landfalls;
• The record is 30 total landfalls in 1971 (since 1970);
• The record for major landfalls is 9, which happened 5 times.

Below are the data for weak (S/S Category 1 and 2) and major (S/S Category 3, 4 and 5).

We will update the data again in one year.

Source: Weinkle, J., Maue, R., & Pielke Jr, R. (2012). Historical global tropical cyclone landfalls. Journal of Climate, 25:4729-4735.