30 November 2007

It's the Time o' the Season

Someone flipped the switch.

About 10 days ago it was in the mid-60's and this morning it was 5. The leaves are raked, the motorcycles are nestled all snug in their beds, and I put the winter shoes on the German hot rod, as they're predicting shovelable snow for tomorrow.

It's also the end of the hurricane season, the second now with barely a ripple. We are still being hit over the head with doom and gloom about storms like Katrina becoming the norm and how there will be more an more of them.

After the 2004 and 2005 hurricane seasons, many worry what Atlantic hurricane seasons will look like in a warmer world. Evidence indicates that higher ocean temperatures add a lot of fuel to these devastating storms.
(The scientists) noticed that warmer water is just one part of a larger pattern indicating that the conditions are right for more frequent, stronger hurricanes in the Atlantic.
Nice story; to get the spooky satellite image, they had to dig up a storm from 1999. Katrina was going to be the new norm; regular devastation from Texas to New York City, Florida chronically underwater, etc. Except it hasn't happened. Again:
As some of you might have noticed, this year’s hurricane season wasn’t the rip-roaring, rock-em-sock-em, non-stop Thrill Ride of Disaster that some meteorologists were predicting last year. In fact, Colorado State University researchers William Gray and Phil Klotzbach concede today in their latest report, they have “over forecast” two seasons in a row — starting in 2006, the Year of Ernesto.
Oh well, if we didn't have hype and hyperbole, how would we ever have tee vee news? So no hurricanes are good (if not unreported) news; unless you are a property owner paying higher premiums.

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