Pre-1600 Atlantic hurricane seasons

The pre-1600 Atlantic hurricane seasons encompasses all known Atlantic tropical cyclones prior to 1600. While data for every storm that occurred is unavailable, some parts of the coastline were populated enough to give data of hurricane occurrences. Each season was an ongoing event in the annual cycle of tropical cyclone formation in the Atlantic basin. Most tropical cyclone formation occurs between June 1 and November 30.

Observation data for years before 1492 is completely unavailable because record keeping was virtually non-existent in the pre-Columbian era, and any records that may have once existed have long since been lost. Even data from the early years of the Columbian era is suspect and incomplete because the distinction between a hurricane and an extratropical system was not drawn by Renaissance scientists and sailors and because European exploration and colonization of the regions affected by hurricanes did not begin in earnest until the mid-16th century.

However, paleotempestological research allows reconstruction of pre-historic hurricane activity trends on timescales of centuries to millennia. A theory has been postulated that an anti-phase pattern exists between the Gulf of Mexico coast and the Atlantic coast. During the quiescent periods, a more northeasterly position of the Azores High would result in more hurricanes being steered towards the Atlantic coast. During the hyperactive period, more hurricanes were steered towards the Gulf coast as the Azores High—controlled by the North Atlantic Oscillation—was shifted to a more southwesterly position near the Caribbean. In fact, few major hurricanes struck the Gulf coast during 3000–1400 BC and again during the most recent millennium; these quiescent intervals were separated by a hyperactive period during 1400 BC and 1000 AD, when the Gulf coast was struck frequently by catastrophic hurricanes and their landfall probabilities increased by 3–5 times.cite journal |last=Liu |first=Kam-biu |authorlink= |coauthors=Fearn, Miriam L. |year=2000 |month= |title=Reconstruction of Prehistoric Landfall Frequencies of Catastrophic Hurricanes in Northwestern Florida from Lake Sediment Records |journal=Quaternary Research |volume=54 |issue=2 |pages=238–245 |doi=10.1006/qres.2000.2166 |url= |accessdate= |quote= ] On the Atlantic coast, probability of landfalling hurricanes has doubled in the recent millennium compared to the one and a half millennia before.cite journal |last=Scott |first=D. B. |authorlink= |coauthors="et al." |year=2003 |month= |title=Records of prehistoric hurricanes on the South Carolina coast based on micropaleontological and sedimentological evidence, with comparison to other Atlantic Coast records |journal=Geological Society of America Bulletin |volume=115 |issue=9 |pages=1027–1039 |doi=10.1130/B25011.1 |url= |accessdate= |quote= ]

torms

Pre-1525

1575-1599

See also

*List of Atlantic hurricanes
*List of Atlantic hurricane seasons
*Paleotempestology

References

Further reading

*cite journal |last=Caviedes |first=César N. |authorlink= |coauthors= |year=1991 |month= |title=Five hundred years of hurricanes in the Caribbean: Their relationship with global climatic variabilities |journal=GeoJournal |volume=23 |issue=4 |pages=301–310 |doi=10.1007/BF00193603 |url= |accessdate= |quote=
*cite journal |last=García-Herrera |first=Ricardo |authorlink= |coauthors="et al." |year=2005 |month= |title=New records of Atlantic hurricanes from Spanish documentary sources |journal=Journal of Geophysical Research |volume=110 |issue= |pages=D03109 |doi=10.1029/2004JD005272 |url= |accessdate= |quote=
*cite book |title=Early American Hurricanes, 1492-1870 |last=Ludlum |first=David McWilliams |authorlink= |coauthors= |year=1963 |publisher=American Meteorological Society |location=Boston |oclc=511649 |pages= |url=
*cite book |title=Hurricanes of the Caribbean and Adjacent Regions, 1492-1800 |last=Millás |first=José Carlos |authorlink= |coauthors= |year=1968 |publisher=Academy of the Arts and Sciences of the Americas |location=Miami |oclc=339427 |pages= |url=

External links

*http://www.nhc.noaa.gov/pastdeadlyapp1.shtml
*http://www.candoo.com/genresources/hurricane.htm
*http://www.hpc.ncep.noaa.gov/research/roth/vahur.htm
*http://www.srh.noaa.gov/lch/research/la18hu.php