Steve, interesting. Hurricane Alley has performed a similar analog study. Here's what they found:

For the purpose of this study, 32 variables were considered. The list of these variables can be found here. The historical data for the past years, from 1950 forward was used for the tropical cyclone information, the best track data from the National Hurricane Center was used for the location information. Each of the 32 variables was given a weighting and a tolerance value. Only the years when the "match" was at least 80% were used. It was determined that the analog years since 1950, or those that best "fit" this year's conditions through the end of September are 1972, 1985, 1988, 1990, 1995, 2002.

1972 1985 1988 1990 1995 2002

Those years produced a few notable storms. 1985 Gave Us Elena, Gloria & Kate; 1988 spawned Gilbert, 1995 had Opal & 2002 had Lili. Of course, Gloria is the one I'll never forget. It will be interesting to see if any of these analog years resemble this year.

Only 26 days till the 2004 Season "officially" begins. Happy cinco de mayo all