While researching hurricane mitigation, I came across this bit of information, from Dr. Gray. I found it quite interesting:

"Indeed, there is strong evidence that intense hurricane formation is cyclic, with a periodicity of approximately twenty years (Gray, 1990). In his paper "Strong Association Between West African Rainfall and U.S. Landfall of Intense Hurricanes," Gray presents evidence that there is a high positive correlation between rainfall in the West African Sahel and the incidence of intense hurricanes making landfall along the U.S. East Eoast. Gray found that during periods of West African Sahel drought there are few intense hurricanes making U.S. East Coast landfalls, while during rainy periods in the Sahel a greater number of intense hurricanes make U.S. East Coast landfall. The increased Sahel rainfall produces slow-moving squall systems called easterly waves that act as triggers for hurricane formation.

The frequency of intense Atlantic hurricanes doubles during periods of Sahel rainfall. Gray documents that the average number of intense Atlantic hurricanes per year went from approximately 1.5 per year during dry periods to approximately three per year during wet periods. Viewed another way, the number of intense hurricane days increased significantly during wet periods: the number of intense hurricane days was four times greater than during dry periods. This implies that not only are there more intense Atlantic hurricanes during Sahel wet periods, but also that these intense hurricanes are longer-lived."

Does anyone know about this and if so, how might one go about finding whether the Sahel is in (or will be in) a wet period?