“Tropical Storm Nicole” came and went in a matter of hours, as did hurricane Lisa and major hurricane Julia. It is unlikely that any of these would have made it into the storm record 70 years ago. Certainly not as a major hurricane.
Nevertheless, they all go into the modern database – and no doubt this will be declared to be an “active hurricane season.” I suspect that coastal residents might disagree. The older apples for apples standard was based on hurricanes which made landfall – which would give 2010 a low score.
Due to technology enhancements, observers are much better at detecting storms now. If the wind speed reaches the next status for a few minutes, the storm’s ranking gets bumped up. But it isn’t a fair comparison vs. older records.
