Art or science?

James Taranto:

So a couple of weeks ago we were in New Orleans, on the precise anniversary of Hurricane Katrina's landfall two years ago. And the weather wasn't bad. What happened? Isn't it hurricane season? And weren't hurricanes supposed to get even worse courtesy of "global warming"? It didn't quite work out that way, as Bloomberg reports:

Hurricane researchers, who forecast seven more storms this season, have flubbed the past two annual estimates because of unusual El Nino and La Nina weather phenomena in the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans.

The predictions reflect variables that make this kind of weather forecasting "more art than science," said Eric Blake, a hurricane specialist at the National Hurricane Center in Miami. Two of the nine Atlantic hurricanes predicted already have occurred for the season that ends Nov 30. Last year, five storms emerged after nine were anticipated.

Remember that: Weather forecasting is "more art than science." Except of course when the forecasters want to dismantle our entire industrial economy. Then it's settled science that no one may even question.

Which ever it is, the weather is prettier than the forecast. This part of Texas has been cooler and wetter than normal despite predictions of record heat and a drought. The results has been greener lawns or higher weeds but also fewer cases of West Nile virus because the mosquito breeding areas in the storm drains keep getting flushed. It has been rare that the temperature has exceed 90 this summer. It is 82 and feeling like an early fall today. A weak cold front may cause some afternoon showers. It looks like another embarrassing summer for the globo warmers.