Also, as I said, if Alma had remained Alma, instead of becoming Arthur, then she wouldn’t have counted as an Atlantic storm at all, and Bertha would have been Arthur. The name list never simply skips a letter.

Alma did originate in the Eastern Pacific, yes, but then it died over Central America — its circulation gone — and its remnant moisture contributed to the system that eventually became Arthur. (If the circulation had remained intact, the storm that subsequently formed on the Atlantic side would have retained the name “Alma,” and the storm we’re now talking about — Bertha — would have been named Arthur.)

In any event, Alan Sullivan, one of the weatherbloggers I often cite, and a fervent non-believer in AGW, who was harshly critical of the NHC last year for “count-padding,” acknowledged that Arthur was a legit named storm. I haven’t heard anyone claim otherwise. There have been two legit storms this year, which is above average for this point in the season. Thus, it is totally ridiculous to ask “where are all the hurricanes??” That’s my point, and it happens to be irrefutably correct.

Did not TS Alma originate in the Eastern Pacific basin, not the North Atlantic (which, indeed, is why it was called “Alma” and not “Arthur”, as a storm with an Atlantic genesis would have been named in 2008)?

Anymore it seems like an extreme weather event has to be tied to AGW. Instead of feeling the awe of nature, sometimes I feel I’m getting a lecture. I miss the “good old days” when we could just marvel at nature’s power without an agenda.

To bastardize Freud a little bit. “Sometimes a big-assed storm is just a big-assed storm.”