TROPICAL cyclones (including hurricanes) are significant climatic
features which affect the South and East USA as well as areas of the
western Atlantic, the Caribbean, and the Gulf of Mexico. Since they are
considered to be a mechanism which limits the build-up of heat and
energy in tropical regions1, cyclones are necessarily related
to large scale circulation patterns which may be global in extent. Thus,
if a relationship is to be found between solar activity and large scale
meteorological phenomena, we may expect that it will evidence itself in
analyses of data on cyclone occurrence and the length of the cyclone
season. Here we report results of such a study, and provide evidence
which is consistent with the hypothesis that a relationship exists
between the solar cycle and the occurrence of Atlantic tropical
cyclones.