So in this report you reference, it lists the following for Hurricane Sandy:
Recent findings show that the occurrence of extreme weather and climate events are on the rise, and the historic damages caused by Hurricane Sandy highlight the immense vulnerability of the United States to such extreme events in a warming world.
So the tidbits of "evidence" for the claim are this:
1) largest hurricane ever observed in the Atlantic -- so? for how many years have hurricanes been observed and measured in size? There is no context. It is sensationalist in nature.
2) damage estimates - whoop-di-do. Another irrelevant figure. It hit a highly populated, highly priced section of the country. I would imagine that damages done in 2012 are far more pricey than damages done 30, 50 or 100 years ago. In absolute dollars, one should expect nothing else.
3) One storm in 108 years is tagged as the "most destructive storm" NYC's subway system history. Once again...so what? How many other storms anywhere near a cat 3 hurricane over the last 108 years are involved in this comparison?
4) The last three bits about housing, cancelled flights and the stock exchange are, again, so what issues? "DATA" for the non-critical thinker. One cat 3 hurricane - two notches below the most extreme - manages to get lucky and hit the jackpot by nailing NYC. Another useless bit of information with no context upon which to build a supposedly scientific argument. Nice trivia for a game show, however.
If it hadn't reached landfall, would it even be used as evidence of an increase in extreme weather? A little yellow journalism for "climate disruption" (aka "The Climate Hysteria Formerly Known as Climate Change"). I guess they'd be using Katrina, another Cat 3 hurricane that managed to hit the jackpot by nailing a city built BELOW sea level. Real genius in that decision. But, hey, we'll rebuild it. After all, we're humans, and we're stupid.
Per this
video from the Weather channel, there were 13 storms in 2013, only 2 hurricanes and the thirty year average is 12 storms. We didn't have a cat 2 or higher hurricane for the first time since 1968. Katrina was a cat 3 hurricane. Sandy was a cat 3 hurricane. Do two cat 3 hurricanes in 7 years that happened to make landfall at densely populated areas constitute a "rise in extreme weather events"? A rise from what? For 2013 - the year following Keith's referenced report - we were a single, solitary
storm outside of the 30 year average. One storm, mind you, in a season of anything
but "extreme weather".
So the dude in the video at the 1 minute mark tosses out that the reason for the LOW number of storms may be something signaling "climate change". So one one hand climate change will cause more extreme weather. On another it's an excuse for the fewer number of storms in 2013 and for no cat 2 or greater storms in 46 years. So, depending on the situation, climate change can be used to support both more extreme weather and less extreme weather. It does it all!!!
According to
this Wikipedia entry (with DATA! and a CHART!), the 1880s - at the dawn of the industrialization of America - had more "extreme weather events"/hurricanes than any other decade that affected the United States. And unless things get kicking here soon, we're on track to come it right at the average again for this decade, plus or minus a storm or two. Only 3 storms affecting the U.S. in the first 4 years of the 2010s.
Then there's the wildfires. According to Smokey the Bear and his radio and TV ads, he tells me up to 90% of wildfire is due to humans setting them either intentionally or through neglect, but that's another matter, along with the eco-nuts keeping the Forest Service from clearing out underbrush (kindling and fuel) from forrested lands.
I may have to turn in an "extreme weather event" for the folks to put on their WFI timeline that happened to me last year. As I recorded on my Facebook page, it wasn't until the first week of August that really hot and humid weather set in around Memphis. Hot and muggy summer temps came VERY late to Memphis last year. On August 8th, I noted that it was 83 degrees at 10 o'clock at night and how happy I was we had an unusually mild late June and July. The next week, on the 14th and 15th, I noted that for the first time in my almost 50 years, I spent two days plus driving around Memphis WITHOUT the A/C on...sunroof open, windows down DURING THE DAY. If that was the result of global warming resulting in "extreme weather", then BRING IT ON!!!

I'm Ed Thompson, and I approve this message.