Coasts and Islands Facing Era of Strong Hurricanes. New analysis provides firmest evidence yet that cycles in ocean and atmospheric conditions that suppressed big storms from 1971 to 1994 have shifted into a storm-spawning state that may last from 10 to 40 years. The researcher cautions that the analysis on which this is based is speculative. However, the consequences of unpreparedness for this possibility are dire, as the seaboard is much more developed than during the ’20’s-’60’s, the last putative peak in the cycle. “The prospect of more exceptionally strong storms is particularly troubling

because their destructive power rises enormously for even a small increase in

wind speed. For example… winds of 130 m.p.h. have

almost double the punch of winds of 100 m.p.h.” New York Times In a case of what New Scientist magazine famously calls “nominative determinism”, one of the co-authors of the study is named Christopher Landsea.