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June 13, 2011

Beware those "lesser" hurricanes

We have a natural tendency to discount the "weaker" hurricanes, those Cat. 1 and 2 cyclones that seem so run-of-the-mill compared with the Cat. 4 and 5 beasts that show up from time to time.

But the smaller tempests are sometimes the ones that cause the most destruiction. Here's some food for thought: The top 10 most destructive hurricanes, from Daily Finance via CNN Money:

1. Hurricane Katrina, 2005: Landfall category: 3. Damage: $81 billion.

2. Hurricane Andrew, 1992: Landfall category: 5. Damage: $35 billion.

3. Hurricane Wilma, 2005:  Landfall category: 3. Damage: $20.6 billion.

4. Hurricane Ike, 2008:  Landfall category: 2. Damage:  $18 billion.

5. Hurricane Charley, 2004:  Landfall category: 4.  Damage: $14 billion.

6. Hurricane Ivan, 2004:  Landfall category: 3. Damage: $13 billion.

7. Hurricane Rita, 2005:  Landfall category: 3. Damage: $10 billion.

8. Hurricane Hugo, 1989: Landfall category: 4. Damage:  $9.7 billion.

9. Hurricane Frances, 2004:  Landfall category: 2. Damage: $8.86 billion.

10: Hurricane Agnes, 1972: Landfall category: 1.  Damages: $8.6 billion. 

 

Posted by Frank Roylance at 2:00 PM | | Comments (0)
Categories: Hurricane background
        

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About Frank Roylance
This site is the Maryland Weather archive. The current Maryland Weather blog can be found here.
Frank Roylance is a reporter for The Baltimore Sun. He came to Baltimore from New Bedford, Mass. in 1980 to join the old Evening Sun. He moved to the morning Sun when the papers merged in 1992, and has spent most of his time since covering science, including astronomy and the weather. One of The Baltimore Sun's first online Web logs, the Weather Blog debuted in October 2004. In June 2006 Frank also began writing comments on local weather and stargazing for The Baltimore Sun's print Weather Page. Frank also answers readers’ weather queries for the newspaper and the blog. Frank Roylance retired in October 2011. Maryland Weather is now being updated by members of The Baltimore Sun staff
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