No Tropical Storms, Worldwide

Yes, I know, Atlantic hurricane season still seems to be waiting a while to get started. But remember, we're still in the foothills of a mountainous graph.

Statistically, we should have had 2 or 3 storms by now, so we are still on par. Last year, of course, was insanely active and we already had 9 by this date.

Joe Bastardi pointed out in his blog this morning that there were no named tropical storms worldwide, and wondered whether this was a record for August 11th. I don't know the answer to that one, but I can answer this question that a blog reader sent me:

My research shows that 1972 and 1983 both included only four named storms. Of course, storms have only been named since 1950. But imagine us riding that mountain in the graph above but only getting one more named storm. I don't see it happening. And the lack of storms worldwide, probably just a coincidence. After all, we had two named storms hitting China just yesterday.

Meteorologists do get excited about hurricane season, and we'd all like to see our forecasts validate. But none of us wish death and destruction on anyone. Sadly, hurricanes do serve a purpose in meteorology: They exist to transmit heat from the equator to the poles (reference). If they didn't exist, most life on Earth would vanish due to extreme temperatures.