Back-to-back CAT 5 Hurricanes.

[David Draun]

Dean and now Felix both reaching CAT 5 status prior to landfall. This seems more common in the Pacific where a conga-line of super-typhoons is possible during the height of the season. It seems during this more active period of the last few years, that we have major hurricanes threatening to landfall as CAT 5 storms more often. Also, they seem to be occurring back-to-back, especially in '04 and '05 though maybe not as CAT 5's. It appears that the CAT 5 hurricane is just a bit more common than it used to be. At least EF-5 damaging tornadoes are still a rarity.

 

[mike scantlin]

why is it suprising to see 2 different storms become a cat 5 under similar conditions?

 

[B Ozanne]

From 1962 to 2002 there were 10 cat 5's. From 2003 until today there have been 8 cat 5's. It's surprising.

I think the two main reasons are: increased hurricane cycle combined with improved observations.

I may be wrong on the observations though. Wasn't there a hayday in recon flights when they first figured out how to do it?

 

[MClarkson]

Satellites were pretty bad too. Having modern IR images to spot the two perfect circles is pretty helpful in determining cat 5 status, especially when planes are not around.


Remember the grainy image of Camille? Even the sat pictures of Andrew are terrible compared with what we have today.

 

[Chris Nuttall]

Keep in mind how long it was this season before we had any major hurricane take shape in the Atlantic basin. Even now, we've only had two storms that amounted to anything (excluding TS Erin in the Gulf).

Those warm ocean waters have really been untouched for most of the season. At least to me, it's not really surprising that our first couple of long-track hurricanes out there reached Cat 5 intensity.

But yeah, I think you guys have hit the nail on the head regarding satellite obs. It's a very similar situation with the increase of tornado reports corresponding to the increased numbers of chasers/spotters.