In September 2017, Hurricanes Harvey and Irma made landfall in the southern United States within two weeks of each other, marking "the first time in recorded history that two category 4 or higher hurricanes struck the U.S. mainland in the same year," according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. In November 2020, two category 4 storms, Eta and Iota, made landfall in Nicaragua.
Climate change is associated with larger, more intense and more frequent storms, a University of South Florida weather and climate professor told Scientific American in 2017. He noted that a coincidence of conditions has to be "just right" to sustain the storms.