Pros And Cons Of Hurricanes

Running Head: HURRICANES: THE 21ST CENTURY’S NEW THREAT?

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Hurricanes: The 21st Century’s New Threat? Paul Greene Brian Wiseman Amy T. Swindell Oklahoma Wesleyan University Adult & Graduate Studies BMB014

Running Head: HURRICANES: THE 21ST CENTURY’S NEW THREAT? Table of Contents TABLE OF CONTENTS ............................................................................................................. 2 HURRICANES: THE 21ST CENTURY’S NEW THREAT? ................................................................. 3 INTRODUCTION ..................................................................................................................... 3 LITERATURE REVIEW..............................................................................................................
Hurricanes: The 21st Century’s New Threat? Introduction When we first starting deciding upon our research topic, our original motivation or at least what intrigued us was the idea of global warming/climate change...is it a hoax or is it the cause of all the crazy weather and abnormal storms the United States has been experiencing as some are claiming? Although not the first time, but still an unfortunate disaster, Hurricane Sandy hit New Jersey and the Atlantic coastline and all you heard about on the news was the spin masters blaming it on global warming. There were those claiming that hurricanes have become more frequent and severe due to global warming. This is what inspired us to pursue our topic and hypothesis of: there has not been an increase in the frequency and/or strength of hurricanes which made landfall with the continental United States in the first decade of the 21st century, as compared to the previous fifteen decades. Our research questions further define & delineate our hypothesis: 1) Based on recorded historical data since 1851, has there been an increase in the number of hurricanes which made landfall with the continental United States during the first decade of the 21st century as compared to the previous 15 decades? And 2) Based on recorded historical data since 1851, has there been an increase in the strength of hurricanes which made landfall with the continental United States during the first
We compiled the resulting data into a Microsoft Excel spreadsheet in order to aid in our quantitative method of analyzing the data numerically. In order to best test our hypothesis; we decided to form the data into six distinct data sets. This gives us the opportunity to look at and present the data in several different ways. We believe this will allow for the most accurate way to interpret and make use of the data. First, we listed the data by the total number of hurricanes, separated by category, for each year beginning with 1851 and ending with 2012. We then charted this data by frequency or number of hurricanes for each year. We computed the mean and standard deviation for the data set 1851-2000 and 2001-2010 for comparison. Second, in order to measure hurricane strength, we multiplied the number of hurricanes each year by its corresponding Saffir-Simpson category. For example, a category 1 or Cat.1 hurricane was assigned a strength rating of 1, a Cat.2 hurricane was assigned a strength rating of 2, and so on through Cat.5. So, in a given year, if there were 3 Cat.1 storms, 1 Cat.2 storm, 2 Cat.3 storms, 1 Cat.4 storm, and 1 Cat.5 storm, the hurricane strength rating for that year would be 20. (3x1) + (1x2) + (2x3) + (1x4) + (1x5) = 20. Once the hurricane strength rating was assigned for each year, we charted this data by strength rating of hurricanes for each year. We then computed the mean and standard deviation