4 months down, 2 to go

[William769]

This has been a weird hurricane season thus far.

The seasonal forecasters were right about this being a busy year over the Atlantic basin. We've had 16 named storms so far in 2011.

But the surprise has been the amount of dry air and wind shear that's been present over the tropics.

When both factors are present, it's hard for storms to get very strong.

Of the 16 that we've tracked, only 4 have strengthened to become hurricanes. And just like last year, most have stayed away from Florida.

With the passage of September...normally the season's busiest month, it's very tempting to extrapolate from the current pattern, put away the tracking charts and start to breathe easy again.

Not so fast.

http://www.nbc-2.com/story/15606615/4-months-down-2-to-go-by-hurricane-expert-jim-reif

[Warpy]

1. The real disappointment has been the Caribbean basin

Nothing much has gotten started there because of that persistent high pressure dome over Texas that has kept humidity in the area extremely low while it keeps Texas bone dry and prone to catching on fire. It's also knocked the usual monsoon flow over the southwest farther west, so a lot of us saw the monsoon rains fizzle again, this year.

With nothing developing there, nothing has rained itself out over Dixie, leaving them dry, too.

That damned high pressure area is what has caused so much havoc across the country this summer, making this summer one of the worst I've seen for sheer misery across the center of the country.