Dear friend,

It seems Christmas decorations aren’t the only things being pulled out of cupboards and dusted down for their annual outing — ‘the long-range Hurricane forecasting season is upon us..

After Tropical Storm Risk got the divining rods out of the cupboard the other day, now it is Philip Klotzbach and William Gray of Colorado State University (with special assistance from William Thorson)’s turn.

Print it off and its 23 pages might make a good paperweight or something. Otherwise ignore it, it’s too depressing.

And I’ve had a thought — why isn’t this lot funded by a Florida State University? Or Mississippi, Louisiana or Texas? Or why not an East Coast Ivy-Leaguer? Surely they are the ones that need to learn about Atlantic Hurricanes?

Shouldn’t Colorado should be into quakes and volcanology?

Ah, the altruism of academia!