The Most Major Hurricanes Ever
The 2024 update to our global hurricane landfall database
Roger Pielke Jr.
Jan 27, 2025
Source: NASA
This post is a joint effort with Ryan Maue. Check out his weather Substack, it is fantastic.
Last year the world experienced the most major hurricane landfalls since records are available, tying only 2015, with 11 storms. Does last year indicate that we have reached a new climate-fueled normal? Let’s have a look.
More than a decade ago, Jessica Weinkle, Ryan Maue, and I published the first long-period global hurricane landfall dataset using a consistent methodology. Since then, Ryan and I have updated the dataset annually.
Last year was a very active year for landfalling tropical cyclones of hurricane strength — with 24 total landfalls (S/S Category 1+), 11 of which were major hurricanes (S/S Category 3+). In fact, 2024 saw the third most landfalls around the world of any year since 1970, trailing only 1971 (30) and 1996 (25), as you can see in the figure below.
https://rogerpielkejr.substack.com/p/the-most-major-hurricanes-ever
