El Niño and Atlantic Tropical Cyclones

Correlation coefficient (values are x100) for the FIT years during the period 1968-1991 between the number of major hurricanes (of easterly-wave origin) during the most active three months of the Atlantic hurricane season (August-October), and sea-surface temperatures (SSTs) leading by two months (June-August). The two-month lead shown here gives the strongest correlations. The correlations are significant at the 95% significance level for values < -50 (i.e., orange, red or pink shading). There were virtually no regions of statistically significant correlations east or west of the dateline for the NOT-FIT sample (not shown).