With a Category 4, major hurricane heading toward the East Coast, with its path leading it to the Carolinas, some may be wondering, how often do the Carolina experience major hurricanes?
First, let’s define a major hurricane. Major hurricanes are hurricanes of category 3 or higher. That’s a storm with maximum sustained wind of 111 mph.
According to the National Hurricane Center, a major hurricane impacts this region between 17 and 34 years, on average. This statistic is based on a major hurricane passing within 50 nautical miles of the points of interest along the coast.
This chart the below shows this statistic. It also shows that the farther north along the east coast, the longer time between impacts for a major hurricane. For instance, for the coast of Maine, this region would be impacted by a major hurricane every 120 to 290 years. Meaning that it much more rare for these regions to be impacted by these powerful storms.
For WeatherNation, I am Meteorologist Marcus Walter.