The year 2020 Common Era (CE) experienced the highest number of named tropical cyclones in the Atlantic Ocean since 1850 CE, but the short instrumental record makes it challenging to assess if this level of activity is statistically meaningful. Here, we present two near‐annually resolved hurricane reconstructions from sediment archived in two blue holes located only 300 m apart on the northern margin of Grand Bahama. These two blue holes provide a replicated signal of hurricanes passing within a 50–100 km radius over the last 1,800 years, and the long‐term reconstructions document multiple 50‐to‐150‐year intervals when hurricane frequency was significantly higher than it has been over the last 100 years. These two records were first merged into a single stack, and then compiled with five other high‐resolution reconstructions from across the Bahamian Archipelago to form a single 1500‐year record of Bahamian hurricane frequency. This new Bahamian Compilation documents more hurricanes passing ∼75°W from 21°N to 26°N during the Little Ice Age (LIA; 1300–1850 CE) relative to the prior millennium and the last 170 years. The US Eastern Seaboard also experienced heightened hurricane activity during the LIA, whereas the Gulf of Mexico and Southern Caribbean were inactive. This suggests that despite a globally cooler climate, regional climate conditions during the LIA remained favorable for cyclogenesis and intensification along certain Atlantic hurricane pathways. Perhaps heightened Sahel rainfall during the LIA indicates an increase in African Easterly waves, which in turn possibly seeded more tropical cyclones in the Atlantic Main Development Region.

A general oceanographic study of a shelf region in the Gulf of Alaska has revealed low-frequency, current fluctuations. A current meter mooring was located approximately 20 km offshore, in a water depth of 100 m. The time dependent flow is found to be baroclinic and semiperiodic. The effects of local bottom topography, nearshore dilution by river discharge, orographic coastal features, and an island barrier are important to the shelf circulation in this region. The movement of a boundary associated with the Copper River appears to be an important process in controlling the water motion at the mooring site.

Current observations from a mooring on the continental shelf near the shelf break in the Gulf of Alaska, with supporting hydrographic and meteorological data, are discussed for the period 1976 to March 1977. The described features suggest strong influence by the cyclonic Alaska Gyre for the periods April–June 1976 and October 1976 to March 1977. From July–September 1976 there is evidence of current veering and rotation. It is hypothesized that these current fluctuations are eddies which are important in mixing processes across the shelf.