Helene’s landfall gives the U.S. a record eight Cat 4 or Cat 5 Atlantic hurricane landfalls in the past eight years (2017-2024), seven of them being continental U.S. landfalls. That’s as many Cat 4 and 5 landfalls as occurred in the prior 57 years. The only comparable beating the U.S. has taken from Category 4 and 5 landfalling hurricanes occurred in the six years from 1945 to 1950, when five Category 4 hurricanes hit South Florida. Furthermore, the U.S. has now suffered a major hurricane strike in five consecutive years. Only one other time since accurate hurricane landfall records began in 1900 has the nation seen a streak that long: way back in 1915-1919.

Hot on Helene’s tail came Hurricane Milton, which made landfall on Oct. 9 in Sarasota, Florida, as a Cat 3 with 120 mph winds. Milton killed 25 people and inflicted tens of billions in damage. But as bad as Milton was, Florida got a major break when the eye of the storm made landfall just 20 miles south of the entrance to Tampa Bay, sparing Florida’s most vulnerable city from a massive 10-foot storm surge that would have cost tens of billions of dollars.