7 ms·

Yeah but what if they couldn't take off in time? Those pilots/crew would suddenly be stuck on an island weathering one of the most powerful hurricanes in histor

Yeah but what if they couldn't take off in time? Those pilots/crew would suddenly be stuck on an island weathering one of the most powerful hurricanes in history.

jacquesm 9y ago
Recorded history.
- SeoxyS 9y ago
  This raises an interesting point. Do you know how long we've been accurately recording cyclones?
  - fish_fan 9y ago
    Depends on what you're trying to measure! Arguably we still can't measure many things accurately.
  - spc476 9y ago
    The National Hurricane Center has some records [1] going back to 1851 [2]. I'm sure those are based more off eye witness accounts. [1] http://www.nhc.noaa.gov/data/#tracks_all http://www.nhc.noaa.gov/data/#tracks_all [2] http://www.nhc.noaa.gov/data/tracks/tracks-at-1851.png http://www.nhc.noaa.gov/data/tracks/tracks-at-1851.png
- bluesnowmonkey 9y ago
  History already means recorded. Anything before records exist is called prehistoric.
  - cc439 9y ago
    The problem with that definition is that "prehistoric" is a lot more recent than people realize in the Americas.
    - hnaccy 9y ago
      Interestingly the Klamath people have an oral history of the eruption of Mount Mazama and formation of Crater Lake over 7000 years ago.
      - cc439 9y ago
        That's incredibly interesting. Does it line up with the geographical record?
        cucuuc 9y ago
        Just a few days ago there was a village in Canada discovered thanks to oral tradition. It has been dated thousands of years older than the pyramids
      - bfred_it 9y ago
        I wouldn't trust that one bit. Have you ever played telephone? 7000 years is a lot of generations, it's likely completely inaccurate.
  - hueving 9y ago
    No, "prehistoric" is the time period before written records. If we only started paying attention to hurricanes in the gulf 200 years ago, that doesn't mean 1805 was prehistoric.
    - cucuuc 9y ago
      S/he didn't make this up. History is the study of the past trough written records. The word has been since overloaded to be the study of the past. Which is fine, except that leaves no reason for the word pre-history
  - thaumasiotes 9y ago
    You're partly right. However, it's very common, even when people want to draw exactly the distinction you're talking about, that they'll just use "history" to refer to a period for which there are any records. That's a pretty different concept from the period for which there are records of the strength of hurricanes.

Yeah but what if they couldn't take off in time? Those pilots/crew would suddenly be stuck on an island weathering one of the most powerful hurricanes in history.

jacquesm 9y ago

Recorded history.

SeoxyS 9y ago
This raises an interesting point. Do you know how long we've been accurately recording cyclones?
- fish_fan 9y ago
  Depends on what you're trying to measure! Arguably we still can't measure many things accurately.
- spc476 9y ago
  The National Hurricane Center has some records [1] going back to 1851 [2]. I'm sure those are based more off eye witness accounts. [1] http://www.nhc.noaa.gov/data/#tracks_all http://www.nhc.noaa.gov/data/#tracks_all [2] http://www.nhc.noaa.gov/data/tracks/tracks-at-1851.png http://www.nhc.noaa.gov/data/tracks/tracks-at-1851.png
bluesnowmonkey 9y ago
History already means recorded. Anything before records exist is called prehistoric.
- cc439 9y ago
  The problem with that definition is that "prehistoric" is a lot more recent than people realize in the Americas.
  - hnaccy 9y ago
    Interestingly the Klamath people have an oral history of the eruption of Mount Mazama and formation of Crater Lake over 7000 years ago.
    - cc439 9y ago
      That's incredibly interesting. Does it line up with the geographical record?
      - cucuuc 9y ago
        Just a few days ago there was a village in Canada discovered thanks to oral tradition. It has been dated thousands of years older than the pyramids
    - bfred_it 9y ago
      I wouldn't trust that one bit. Have you ever played telephone? 7000 years is a lot of generations, it's likely completely inaccurate.
- hueving 9y ago
  No, "prehistoric" is the time period before written records. If we only started paying attention to hurricanes in the gulf 200 years ago, that doesn't mean 1805 was prehistoric.
  - cucuuc 9y ago
    S/he didn't make this up. History is the study of the past trough written records. The word has been since overloaded to be the study of the past. Which is fine, except that leaves no reason for the word pre-history
- thaumasiotes 9y ago
  You're partly right. However, it's very common, even when people want to draw exactly the distinction you're talking about, that they'll just use "history" to refer to a period for which there are any records. That's a pretty different concept from the period for which there are records of the strength of hurricanes.