The Eastern U.S. has gone so long without seeing a major hurricane make landfall, there are some kids there who’ve never seen one.
Don’t believe me? Meet Zion, a young kid MSNBC interviewed in South Carolina told the left-leaning news network he’d never seen a hurricane before.
“Have you seen a hurricane before?” an MSNBC reporter asked Zion Wednesday afternoon as she interviewed the young boy and his grandmother preparing to wait out Hurricane Matthew.
“No, not in my life,” Zion answered.
Zion also told MSNBC he was excited there’d be no school for the next couple of days.
The U.S. has been in the midst of a hurricane drought for 11 years, meaning no major hurricane, Category 3 or higher, has made landfall in that time. Hurricane Wilma in 2005 was the last such storm to make landfall in the U.S.
Hurricane Matthew is expected to break this streak Thursday evening when it touches down in Florida. State officials have ordered evacuations of South Carolina’s coastal areas, and Floridians are also moving out of the storm’s path.
Why was the U.S. spared of major hurricanes for more than a decade? No one knows for sure, but a 2015 study attributed it to dumb “luck.”
What’s interesting, though, is the hurricane drought sort of runs counter to predictions global warming will make storms more frequent and more intense.
Scientists and activists were quick to blame global warming for a string of seven major hurricanes that hit the U.S. in 2004 and 2005. But a lack of major hurricanes for 11 years is just being called “lucky” by researchers.
For the latest updates on Hurricane Matthew, visit The Daily Caller News Foundation’s “Hurricane Watch” page.
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