There is a popular perception that the number and intensity of hurricanes, typhoons and other tropical storms is increasing as a result of man-made global warming. This has led many people to believe that our fossil fuel usage is to blame for the horrific tragedies associated with recent tropical cyclones such as Hurricane Katrina (2005), Cyclone Nargis (2008), Hurricane Sandy (2012) and Typhoon Haiyan (2013).
However, these perceptions are not matched by the data. In this essay, we will briefly review what is actually known about hurricane trends.