The Times has converted all of its 1964 issues into a digitized, searchable format. Each week, The Upshot will unearth an item from 50 years ago and put it in the light of today. “Hurricane Lashes 2 Florida Cities” appeared on Sept. 10 and can be seen in its original format on TimesMachine.
After several relatively quiet years, the Atlantic hurricane season of 1964 struck with renewed vigor, especially in Florida. Fifty years ago this week, Hurricane Dora, a Category 4 storm, came ashore in the state’s northeast corner, causing five deaths and $250 million in damage ($1.9 billion in today’s money). Two weeks earlier, Hurricane Cleo killed 214 people in the Caribbean before raking Miami with gusts of up to 135 miles per hour.
Four hurricanes would ultimately come ashore in the United States that year, the most since 1933. All four at least touched Florida, ending a 12-year quiet period for the state.
The year’s total of six hurricanes (including two that did not come ashore) would be just slightly above the average of five that prevailed for the next three decades, but starting in 1995 the number and intensity of Atlantic storms took a sharp upward turn. Since 1995, the average number of hurricanes has risen to eight, and while on average 1.7 per year reached the dangerous Category 3, 4 or 5 level from 1964 through 1994, that number has now essentially doubled, to 3.5.
(We should note here that the system of classifying storms by Saffir-Simpson category — Category 3 means sustained winds of 111-129 m.p.h., Category 4 means winds of 130-156 m.p.h., and Category 5 means anything stronger than that — has its weaknesses. Hurricane Katrina was a Category 5 at its peak but had weakened substantially before it inundated New Orleans in 2005, while Hurricane Sandy topped out at Category 3 and was technically not a hurricane at all by the time it wreaked havoc on the New York metropolitan region in 2012.)
Although most scientists believe global warming has played a role in the increasing strength of hurricanes, they caution that the issues around climate change are complex. Neither of the two Atlantic hurricanes in 2013 nor any of the three so far this year exceeded Category 2 in strength. Whether that’s a statistical blip or the result of some other factor is unknown.
One thing that hasn’t happened in the Atlantic since 1964 is the arrival of another Hurricane Dora. That name was retired, as hurricane names typically are once they’ve been used for a storm that has turned destructive and deadly. (Names retired from use in the Atlantic can still be used for storms in other oceans, however.)