A Storm Called Alpha

In most years, a storm of the relative inconsequence of Tropical Storm Alpha — it’s of little consequence unless you happen to live beyond blog reach in the mountains of Hispaniola, anyway — would barely have attracted public notice here in the States. But 2005 isn’t most years, and Alpha, which blew westward across the Atlantic for days while Hurricane Wilma got all the ink last week, finally became organized enough that it was officially recognized as a tropical cyclone.

The history has been well discussed: It’s the first time since hurricane records have been kept in the mid-Atlantic/Caribbean/Gulf region that so many tropical cyclones have formed in one season: 22. But that’s a record that goes back just 150 years, a sliver of a sliver of time. Leaving aside the impact we’ve had on long-term climate as enthusiastic burners of anything that will burn, is it really likely that the weather observed this year is of absolutely unprecedented severity? Just asking the question tells you what I think. Maybe someday climate scientists, like those working in the new field of paleotempestology, will produce a definitive answer to open-ended questions like that.

Alpha’s nearly done with. But Wilma’s still a story. Having read the discussions pretty religiously the last week or so, it has defied the model predictions (and thus our expectations) and restrengthened after crossing Florida. This is a boon for researchers looking for clues to storm behavior, no doubt. It’s also a treat for those who see this season’s monster hurricanes as evidence that Giant Weather Machines (GWM) are controlling the behavior of the atmosphere now.

Scott Stevens, former Pocatello, Idaho, TV weatherman and current leading apostle for the GWM worldview, took one look at Wilma last week and saw all the signs of a manufactured event:

“Hurricanes now develop in locations that best suit the weather makers. No longer do they need to spend a week traversing the Tropical Atlantic gathering a name as they first become a depression while slowly strengthening to a tropical storm and then on to become a hurricane. Yes, explosive hurricane development has occurred in the past, but these past few years are different. There has been a discernable shift in how quickly and where these tropical storms develop and mature. Storms now form much closer to where the Powers That Be want the maximum terror effect. These storms are clearly government sponsored terrorist events. The effects are economic, are emotionally draining to the point of exhaustion, certainly financially taxing, and used to cause a victimhood mentality that makes us all feel powerless in some sense. The net effect is fatigue and in the case of Katrina and Rita we have been delivered an infection of poverty that this deeply indebted nation will struggle to overcome for a generation or more.

“All weather is now manufactured. Period.”

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