USATODAY.com - Expert predicts decades of increased hurricane activity

USATODAY.com - Expert predicts decades of increased hurricane activity: "Expert predicts decades of increased hurricane activity
WASHINGTON (AP) — Expect more hurricanes large and small in the next 10 to 20 years, the director of the federal National Hurricane Center said Tuesday.
Hurricane Rita toward Texas Wednesday at 3:45 a.m. A federal hurricane expert said storm severity fluctuates every few decades.
NOAA

Max Mayfield told a congressional panel that he believes the Atlantic Ocean is in a cycle of increased hurricane activity that parallels an increase that started in the 1940s and ended in the 1960s.

The ensuing lull lasted until 1995, then 'it's like somebody threw a switch,' Mayfield said. The number and power of hurricanes increased dramatically.

Under questioning by members of the Senate Commerce subcommittee on disaster prevention and prediction, he shrugged off the notion that global warming played a role, saying instead it was a natural cycle in the Atlantic Ocean that fluctuates every 25 to 40 years."