Mainstream media was buzzing in the last few days with news of an "unprecedented" twin hurricane that could hit the southern U.S. The news emerged after the National Hurricane Center (NHC) forecast that then-Hurricane Marco and Hurricane Laura might hit New Orleans.
But records dating back to a few centuries prove that such twin hurricanes are not unprecedented. It's also untrue that hurricanes will grow stronger, as predicted by Al Gore when Hurricane Katrina hit in 2005. Research including a United Nations (UN) report demonstrated that there is little evidence that hurricanes are increasing in number and strength in the past several years.
In fact, recent forecasts ruled out the possibility of the two hurricanes hitting within a hair of each other – Marco fell apart as it crossed the Gulf of Mexico earlier this week. Laura, a category-4 storm, became a lone straggler that made landfall on Thursday, August 27.
Media lies about hurricane history
Various publications called back-to-back hurricanes unprecedented.
One CNN story had the headline, "'Unprecedented' back-to-back hurricanes will target the same state, forcing evacuations in Louisiana." In the article, Marco and Laura were forecast to arrive within two days of each other and make landfall between New Orleans and Mobile, Alabama. For this reason, its author deemed the event "unprecedented."
A guest commentary published in the USA Today claimed that the Trump administration was not responding well to the incoming hurricanes. Author and opinion contributor Monica Medina wrote that U.S. President Donald Trump was apathetic to environmental crises facing the nation today. These include not only the two hurricanes but also the wildfires in the West.
"Climate change is wreaking havoc on people’s lives right now. This month alone, not a section of the country has been spared a devastating event," Medina wrote. It is important to note that the wildfires seen in the West today, including in California, are seasonal, part of the effects brought about by the summer and fall seasons.
Even meteorologists are prone to spread misleading information. Jason Dunning, a television meteorologist at NBC2 WBBH-TV in Fort Meyers, Florida, wrote in a now-deleted Facebook post, "[It] would be the first time in recorded history with two hurricanes in the gulf at the same time." (Related: Media terrorizing Americans with HURRICANE HYSTERIA.)
But these claims are rather misleading; various records show that a back-to-back storm had happened in the country in the past.
Hurricanes not increasing or intensifying
Climatologist Roy Spencer wrote a book titled Inevitable Disaster: Why Hurricanes Can't Be Blamed On Global Warming. In a Facebook post, he shared that when he was researching for the book, he encountered several back-to-back hurricanes in the New World's 500-year history.
For example, there were the Twin Mobile Hurricanes and the two separate hurricanes that hit within one week of each other in the Gulf Coast region around Mobile. These 1740 hurricanes wreaked great damage to Louisiana.
Spencer clarified that when the NHC said something is "first" in recorded history, the agency is only referring to the last 150 years.
According to experts, the tendency of some news and weather agencies to interpret something as "unprecedented" goes straight to the heart of climate alarmism. Medina's statements in her commentary talked smack-dab of climate change in relation to Hurricanes Laura and Marco. Meanwhile, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration claimed that global warming will cause an increased number and intensity of tropical cyclones.
But other studies contradict these claims. According to a 2018 report by the UN's Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, data on climate history offers "only low confidence for the attribution of any detectable changes in tropical cyclone activity to anthropogenic influences."
Spencer also looked at all the hurricanes that hit Louisiana since 1851 using the NHC's database. He discovered that hurricanes neither increased in strength or number in the state over the last 170 years.
In 2005, former Vice President Al Gore warned that events like Hurricane Katrina would be the new normal. But his prediction fell flat as the U.S. coasted from 2005 to 2017 without being hit by a hurricane classified as category 3 and above.
As these revelations show, this month's Laura and Marco are not new. But recent coverage has blown them out of proportion.
Sources include:
IPCC.ch [pdf]
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