BBC Caught Promoting Hurricane Disinformation Again

But it gets away with it because it marks its own homework

Atlantic hurricanes are not getting worse. They are not becoming more frequent, nor are they are getting stronger.

It is not me saying that – it is what the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) has repeatedly said. NOAA is the US Federal Agency that deals with all matters surrounding weather and climate.

But the BBC, it seems, knows better than those experts. Every time there is a big hurricane, it wheels out one of its weather presenters to claim that climate change is making hurricanes more powerful.

It was no exception when Hurricane Melissa hit Jamaica in October. Weathergirl Sarah Keith-Lucas baldly proclaimed:

The frequency of very intense hurricanes such as Melissa is increasing.

NOAA has data on US landfalling hurricanes back to 1851. It reckons these records are robust as far back as the 1890s, by which time most of the Atlantic coast had been populated. According to the agency, the data show that US hurricanes are not more frequent than in the past, nor are major hurricanes – the stronger Category 3 and over ones the BBC refers to.