[01] A. Parker, School of Engineering and Physical Science, James Cook University, Townsville QLD, Australia.

It has been claimed from the analysis of the data collected over the last 216 years that the frequency of Hurricane Sandy-like floods has increased from once every 1,200 years to once every 400 years. This statement is wrong. The data suggest that across the continental US and NY City the frequency of hurricanes is reducing while the sea levels are rising not dramatically and without any acceleration component. 2012 Hurricane Sandy occurred 21.19 years after 1991 Hurricane Bob. Since the late 1930s, the prior 9 Hurricanes occurred after a delay of 6.33 years on average, maximum 11.69 years, minimum 0.03 years (Hurricane Edna of category-1 occurred on 11-Sep-1954, only 11 days after category-3 Hurricane Carol of 31-Aug-1954). Across the continental US, the number of hurricanes per decade has been reducing at a rate of -0.256% per year, or -2.56% per decade, since 1851. In NY City, the sea levels are rising +2.84 mm/year with no acceleration. Across the continental US, on average the sea levels are rising +1.77 mm/year also with no acceleration. No statistic can be made without good quality data spanning a significant amount of time that for climate studies should be at least above 60 years. Definitively no statistic can be computed over time scales not covered by any data.

Sea Level Rise, Sea Level Oscillations, Sea Level Acceleration, Hurricanes, United States, New York

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