The Atlantic-Caribbean-Gulf of Mexico region is the best monitored in the world and that region had the smallest increase, he noted.
``This really highlights the need to go back and get all the original data ... and reanalyze the storms with today's
techniques,'' Landsea said in a telephone interview. ``These are billion-dollar questions and we need to better answer them.''
Holland agreed there have been changes in the observing system since the 1970s but noted the increase has been steady over the period, ``it didn't just kick in when the new measurement methods kicked in.''
The fact that the trend is smaller in the Atlantic basin is beside the point, he added, because it has gone up there too.
``The end result is that there is no doubt that there is a substantial increase here,'' Holland said.
Roger Pielke, director of the Center for Science and Technology Policy Research at the University of Colorado, said the report ``reinforces the view that we should pay even greater attention to preparing for the inevitability of future intense hurricanes striking vulnerable locations around the world. In the context of ever-growing coastal development, the costs of hurricanes are going to continue to escalate.''
Emanuel, Landsea and Pielke were not part of Webster's research team. Webster's research was funded by the National Science Foundation and the National Center for Atmospheric Research.
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