Question 6.75

40. These data, from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration website (www.noaa.gov), are the mean annual number of named Atlantic storms (hurricanes, tropical storms, and tropical depressions), during five-year windows ending with the year shown in the table:

Five-year period ending 2012 2007 2002 1997 1992 1987 1982 1977
Number named storms 16.2 16.2 13.6 11.0 10.4 8.2 10.0 8.8
Five-year period ending 1972 1967 1962 1957 1952 1947 1942
Number named storms 11.2 9.2 8.8 10.6 10.4 9.4 7.4
  1. What is the slope of the least-squares regression line of named storms against year? What is the intercept?
  2. Use the regression line to predict the mean annual number of named storms for the five-year window ending with the year 2017.