Hurricane Irma: Are catastrophic disasters striking more often?

Is the number of disasters actually increasing, or does media make it seem so?

No sooner had Hurricane Harvey’s record rains receded from Houston and neighboring cities than the residents of Florida began bracing for a wallop from an even more powerful storm. And hurricane season hasn’t even peaked yet.

This begs the question: Is the number of major natural disasters striking the United States actually increasing, or does the media’s natural tendency to overhype conflict only make it seem so?

The federal government’s National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration actually maintains a website that can help answer this question. Its list of billion-dollar disasters goes back to 1980 and records