HURRICANES — GENTRY AND SIMPSON 



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Figure 1. — Tracks of hurricanes and tropical storms of 1947. 



cane intensity entered the United States coast from Texas, around 

 Florida, through Georgia, but, as mentioned earlier, six storms rav- 

 aged the United States coast from North Carolina to New England. 

 This radical shift in pattern can be illustrated by comparing figure 1 

 with figure 2. 



Such radical differences in paths as those indicated have caused 

 speculation as to the possibility that the area of hurricane incidence 

 has shifted from southern United States to northeastern United States. 

 To investigate this point, research has been performed by the Office 

 of Climatology of the United States Weather Bureau. In figure 3, 

 the occurrence of tropical storms within the various coastal sections 

 is shown chronologically. The graphs in this figure show that more 

 storms have affected northeastern United States and the North Caro- 

 lina area the past two years than at various times since 1887. There 

 have been long periods when storms did not affect New England, for 

 instance, but there have been other periods when hurricane frequency 

 in northeastern United States was even greater than it was during 1954 

 and 1955. It is evident, therefore, that the recent shift in tracks does 

 not necessarily indicate a semipermanent relocation of the hurricane 

 alley. 



