My latest Storm Pundit column is up; it considers Dean in both Atlantic and global perspective. Some factoids:
1. Dean is the ninth most intense Atlantic storm by pressure, and six of the top ten (Wilma, Rita, Katrina, Mitch, Dean, and Ivan) have occurred in the past ten years.
2. Dean is the strongest hurricane anywhere this year, and by far the strongest at landfall. It is the tenth category 4 or 5 hurricane globally and the 3rd Category 5. You can read the rest of the "Storm Pundit" post here. Here's an image, courtesy of Weather Underground, of Dean at landfall:
* Clarification: The title of this post should have noted that these are the most intense recorded hurricanes (measured by pressure). Certainly there were many intense hurricanes in past decades, centuries, millennia, etc, that could not have been so measured. The "Storm Pundit" post linked to makes this clear, but the title here should have as well.
