I believe I’ve now heard newscasters say this on every network. They usually qualify this by saying “in the Atlantic basin.”
But even so, this is nonsense. Putting aside the fact that good measurements only go back to the 1970s, are we supposed to believe that during the entire Triassic or Cretaceous period there weren’t, you know, a few stronger storms? When dinosaurs roamed the earth, they knew nothing like the savage fury of Rita.
“Ever” is a really long time when you’re talking about weather.