Emergency explanations have had to be rushed to the climate catastrophising front following the shocking news that hurricanes in the North Atlantic have largely disappeared this year.
Until recently the area was heading for a double bagel – zero hurricanes with zero major hurricanes, although a late storm has upset a score line never before seen in the historical record. As with all ‘extreme’ outlier weather events, humans must be responsible, at least that has been the mainstream reaction for around 30 years (we have the computer models to prove it). But wait, not on this occasion. Simon King from the BBC states that a natural occurring El Niño is the “biggest reason”.
Wot, no humans altering the climate? Surely a first for the BBC. In fact, lead weather presenter King is on the right track in that the El Niño Southern Oscillation (ENSO), a transporter of heat from the Pacific Ocean around the world, can reduce wind shear and supress storm activity. But activity is complex in the chaotic, non-linear, largely unmeasurable atmosphere. Such a simple explanation didn’t work well in 2023 when another strong El Niño occurred at a time when there was a long-term-average-busting hurricane season with seven hurricanes and three major hurricanes. Then the narrative-driven media was jammed packed with possible anthropogenic causes.
Long experience of being fed climate claptrap means we must be intrigued when ‘natural’ reasons are suddenly being used to explain the inevitable weather outliers that run the danger of casting doubt on the pseudoscience backing the Net Zero fantasy. While such natural explanations are welcome, indeed almost always highly relevant, they are curiously missing from most useful idiot mainstream climate messaging.
