Hurricane Irma most searched in 2017 worldwide

Google ranks News4Jax ranks top news search

This year Hurricane Irma was typed into Google more than any other search term both in America and Worldwide.

JACKSONVILLE, Fla – You would think politics or the Jags would take the top search on Google this year, but Hurricane Irma was "Googled" the most in Jacksonville.

Search interest during the hurricane season hit an all time high in September as several storms hit countries and islands across the Atlantic. Hurricane Irma became the Jacksonville area's most popular search in the history of Google.

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Google Trends provides analytics for dates back to 2004 and Irma was the most requested search not just locally but around the world. In second place was the iPhone 8.

Irma, Harvey, Jose and Maria took four out of the 10 spots on the top trending news searches of the year. Irma ranked higher than Donald Trump, terrorism, or Matt Lauer fourth place global rank.

2017 was the year we asked “how…?” How do wildfires start? How to calm a dog during a storm? How to make a protest sign? In fact, Google says these types of queries were searched at least 10 times more this year than ever before. 

Google analytics compared to two other local TV news stations show News4Jax ranked higher in worldwide search over any other news outlet by a long shot. 


About the Author:

After covering the weather from every corner of Florida and doing marine research in the Gulf, Mark Collins settled in Jacksonville to forecast weather for The First Coast.