Huh? A dip from 1970 to 1955? Sorry, not what the study found. The number
of storms stayed fairly constant, but the percentage of major storms went up.

Try reading the article.

You are the one not reading the article! The study did not address the
issue of storms before 1970. If it had it would have found that the
storms of the 50s nearly numbered the present ones and the graph would
not have looked like an uptrend! Bill is entirely correct!