https://rogerpielkejr.substack.com/p/global-tropical-cyclone-landfalls
By ROGER PIELKE JR.
Excerpt:
The figure below shows the updated time series for the period of available data at the global scale, 1970 to 2025. Last year was a fairly typical year, with 19 total landfalls, of which 7 were major hurricanes. Overall tropical cyclone activity in the Northern Hemisphere was below average and above average in the Southern Hemisphere.
The total includes:
- 5 in the Southern Indian / Australian region;
- 1 in the Eastern Pacific;
- 1 in the North Atlantic;
- 12 in the Western North Pacific.
Since 1970, the number of major hurricane landfalls has increased, while the number of minor landfalls has remained constant, meaning that a greater proportion of landfalling storms are at the higher intensities. This trend is consistent with the assessments of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change for overall tropical cyclone activity (landfalling or not). Perhaps this is a signal of human caused changes in climate? Well . . .
It is well understood that the 1970s and early 1980s were a period of lower tropical cyclone activity overall. We can get a longer-term perspective by looking just at the Western Pacific and North Atlantic, which together account for ~70% of total global landfalls, and have reliable data going back to 1950.
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