<html xmlns:v="urn:schemas-microsoft-com:vml" xmlns:o="urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:office" xmlns:w="urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:word" xmlns:m="http://schemas.microsoft.com/office/2004/12/omml" xmlns="http://www.w3.org/TR/REC-html40"><head><meta http-equiv=Content-Type content="text/html; charset=us-ascii"><meta name=Generator content="Microsoft Word 15 (filtered medium)"><!--[if !mso]><style>v\:* {behavior:url(#default#VML);}
o\:* {behavior:url(#default#VML);}
w\:* {behavior:url(#default#VML);}
.shape {behavior:url(#default#VML);}
</style><![endif]--><style><!--
/* Font Definitions */
@font-face
{font-family:"Cambria Math";
panose-1:2 4 5 3 5 4 6 3 2 4;}
@font-face
{font-family:Calibri;
panose-1:2 15 5 2 2 2 4 3 2 4;}
/* Style Definitions */
p.MsoNormal, li.MsoNormal, div.MsoNormal
{margin:0in;
font-size:11.0pt;
font-family:"Calibri",sans-serif;}
a:link, span.MsoHyperlink
{mso-style-priority:99;
color:#0563C1;
text-decoration:underline;}
span.EmailStyle17
{mso-style-type:personal-compose;
font-family:"Calibri",sans-serif;
color:windowtext;}
.MsoChpDefault
{mso-style-type:export-only;
font-family:"Calibri",sans-serif;}
@page WordSection1
{size:8.5in 11.0in;
margin:1.0in 1.0in 1.0in 1.0in;}
div.WordSection1
{page:WordSection1;}
--></style><!--[if gte mso 9]><xml>
<o:shapedefaults v:ext="edit" spidmax="1026" />
</xml><![endif]--><!--[if gte mso 9]><xml>
<o:shapelayout v:ext="edit">
<o:idmap v:ext="edit" data="1" />
</o:shapelayout></xml><![endif]--></head><body lang=EN-US link="#0563C1" vlink="#954F72" style='word-wrap:break-word'><div class=WordSection1><p class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal>While hiking in the Sierras this week, I spoke with my climbing companion and discovered in him some views on storms I found must puzzling. He thought this was one of the worst storm seasons in American history. It isn’t. It is one of the mildest storm seasons in the 56 years since we have had satellites to establish comparable metrics.<o:p></o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal>Note that we are approaching the end of Atlantic storm season and there is nothing out there currently. Julia was just named in the last hour, currently a tropical storm. These are the storms so far this 2022 season.<o:p></o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal><a href="http://tropical.atmos.colostate.edu/Realtime/index.php?loc=northatlantic">http://tropical.atmos.colostate.edu/Realtime/index.php?loc=northatlantic</a><o:p></o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal><img border=0 width=566 height=934 style='width:5.8958in;height:9.7291in' id="Picture_x0020_1" src="cid:image002.jpg@01D8DA24.29BD76B0"><o:p></o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal>My hiking companion heard that Ian was the fifth largest hurricane to hit the continental USA in history. So I asked biggest how? How biggest? Fifth most costly? It might end up being the most costly, but that’s different. That doesn’t make it the biggest. It doesn’t even make it to the top of the list this mild season, depending on how it is measured.<o:p></o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal>By the metric which can be measured by a satellite, which has no news stories to sell or global action to promote, Ian was the second biggest this mild season. By that metric, Ian doesn’t show up on the top 30 hurricanes in the past 56 years since satellites.<o:p></o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal>OK so not that one. If we look at hurricanes this season by duration as a named storm, Ian makes fourth place of nine. If sorted by duration as a hurricane, second of four. If sorted by duration as a major hurricane, second of two this season. By total accumulated cyclone energy, second place of nine with two others right there.<o:p></o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal>News agencies must sell stories which means selling exciting dangerous stuff if they can. So they need to find a way to make Ian sound unusually severe. But Ian really wasn’t unusually severe. It hit right down there in the rich kids’ neighborhood, so it wrecked a lotta yachts and planes, which really is good stuff when selling news. It flooded a lotta nice houses, which also sells news stories like hotcakes. But as storms go, it was only big, not unusual at all. Ian was certainly expensive because of where it made landfall and one of the very best news story salesmen in American history.<o:p></o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal>In some ways, the Ian story was a grand illusion.<o:p></o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal>spike<o:p></o:p></p></div></body></html>