Scientists now regard even data from the early years of the Columbian era as suspicious because Renaissance scientists and sailors made no distinction between tropical cyclones and extratropical systems, and incomplete because European exploration of North America and European colonization of the Americas reached only scattered areas in the 16th century.
During the hyperactive period, more hurricanes were steered towards the Gulf coast as the Azores High—controlled by the North Atlantic oscillation—was shifted to a more southwesterly position near the Caribbean.
[3] Using sediment samples from Puerto Rico, the Gulf coast and the Atlantic coast from Florida to New England, Michael E. Mann et al. (2009) found consistent evidence of a peak in Atlantic tropical cyclone activity during the Medieval Warm Period followed by a subsequent lull in activity.
[4] ~ – only paleotempestological evidence [102][103][104] Surviving ships included the 120-ton navío San Sebastián under Diego Hernández from Puerto Rico.
Robert F. Marx accuses Dutch historian Jan Huyghen van Linschoten of misinformation in telling that only 14 or 15 of 220 ships sailing for Iberian Union survived the year and that about 99 disappeared near Florida.