How long have they been tracking that measurement?
20,30 years. Maybe 40.
Mostly since the development of weather satellites.
To say there has NEVER been a storm this size is not very honest when the record is so short.
There is evidence of larger storms. Based on the location of ships impacted by it, the 1944 Pacific hurricane, informally known in the military as Cobra, hit ships well over 1,000 miles apart at the same time.