Hurricane Earl is now a memory for most, but last Thursday while the storm was a major threat to the East coast states of the US I noticed a frequent reference to Hurricane Bob from back in 1991. In Fact the Washington Post went so far as to cited Hurricane Earl “as the most threatening hurricane to the East Coast since Hurricane Bob in 1991.” Hurricane Bob’s claim to fame was brushing the NC coast and then hitting parts of New England as a category 2 storm in 1991.
Question 1. What is the “East Coast.” Does Florida Count? Seems to me I remember Hurricane Andrew. That one hit as a Category 5 storm south of Miami in 1992 a full year after Hurricane Bob.
Question 2. Moving further North, are NC, VA, DE, and NJ part of the “East Coast?” Hurricane Isabel came ashore in NC at a category 2 storm in 2003. So I guess it must have been less threatening for some reason. That despite the fact that at one point in it’s life is had sustained winds of 165 mph compared to Bob’s peak at 115 mph.
That leaves me wondering about things like data sources, interpretation, what measurements are used to determine “most-threatening,” and how the “East Coast” is defined in the eyes of the writer.