Most Americans think that the Atlantic Ocean is a hotbed of hurricane activity. The Pacific Ocean has nearly four times the number of hurricanes as the Atlantic, but most stay out to sea, never making landfall. So for the United States, most hurricanes of note happen on the Eastern Seaboard and the Gulf of Mexico's shores.

The North Atlantic has about ten intense tropical storms with hurricane potential per year. About 1/2 of the storms turn into hurricanes and two of those will be labeled “intense. The North Atlantic hurricane season begins on June first and ends on November thirtieth and most hurricanes will form between August 15 and October 15th with the “peak season being on September tenth.

Most scientists see a pattern in the way hurricanes occur over time. The Atlantic Multidecadal Oscillation is a 50-70 year cycle for Atlantic hurricanes. This oscillation is a peak and valley graph of hurricanes over time, beginning at the average and going down or up every year. We are currently in a peak series on that graph. The peak began in 1995 and will end in 2020, or thereabouts.

The areas most likely to be hit by hurricanes are hard to judge, outside of generic terms like “Mid-Atlantic and “Gulf Coast. Hurricanes have traditionally done little damage with only a few being major catastrophes, but recently the amount of damage has increased rapidly as the population of people living on the coasts grows.

Florida takes the brunt of most hurricanes, tropical storms, and disturbances because of its location. Don't think you don't need hurricane shutters miami just because you don't live in Miami.  Florida gets a lot of hurricanes out of the southern part.  It has more coastline than any other state (coast:landmass) and its coastlines run along both the Atlantic seaboard and the Gulf. Even storms which don't actually make landfall in Florida often skirt the coast, sending wind, rain, and high waves into Florida's coast.

The states that get hit the hardest are often those directly north of Florida, however. West of Florida, into the Gulf of Mexico, however, many states are sheltered by Florida's projection into the sea and most hurricanes make landfall further east in Louisiana, Mississippi, and Texas.

Hurricanes are measured in intensity on what is called the Saffir-Simpson Scale for Atlantic Hurricanes (or just Saffir-Simpson). On this scale, a category 1 hurricane has wind speeds of 74-95 miles per hour and a potential damage scale of 1 – most damage is to shrubbery, small trees, mobile homes, etc. but no serious damage to permanent structures or large watercraft.

From the category 1, the scale goes up to 5 with a level 5 storm being catastrophic, with winds over 155 miles per hour. Most storms that cause enough damage to make the nightly news are category 2 or 3 storms and most hurricanes that make landfall in the Atlantic are category 1-3 storms.