Hurricanes hit the United States often and hard, causing some loss of life and enormous economic costs. They are ranked in severity by the Saffir–

Simpson scale, which ranges from Category 1 to Category 5, with 5 being the worst. In some years, as many as three hurricanes that rate a Category 3 or higher hit the U.S. coastline. In other years, no hurricane of this severity hits the United States. The following table lists the number of years that had 0, 1, 2, 3, or more hurricanes of at least Category 3 in severity, over the 100 years of the 20th century (Blake et al. 2005):

a. What is the mean number of severe hurricanes to hit the United States per year?

b. What model would describe the distribution of hurricanes per year, if they were to hit independently of each other and if the probability of a hurricane were the same in every year?

c. Test the fit of the model from part (b) to the data.

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Number of hurricanes Category 3 or higher 00 11 22 33 >3> 3 Number of years 5050 3939 77 44 00