How many tropical systems occur on average each year?
Globally, an average of around 85 tropical storms and 45 hurricanes/typhoons form per year. The tropical Atlantic and Gulf of Mexico — the sources of U.S. hurricanes — produce an average of 9 named storms per year, with around 6 of those becoming hurricanes and 2 of those becoming major hurricanes (ones with sustained surface winds exceeding 110 mph). The period since 1995 has been unusually active. Despite El Niño-linked reductions in hurricane activity during 1997, the years from 1995 to 2000 have been the most active six-year period on record. This includes the total number of named storms (79), hurricanes (49), and major hurricanes (23). However, only 3 of the 23 major hurricanes that developed in the Atlantic basin during this period reached the U.S. coastline (Opal, 1995; Fran, 1996; and Bret, 1999). Over the last century as a whole, a much higher fraction of major Atlantic hurricanes (73 out of 218) made landfall in the United States.
