want to hear a fun conspiracy theory?

i'm not saying you should take it seriously. i'm just thinking out loud...

obama's period as the grand master will likely be recorded in history as fairly uneventful: a lot of continuity, with the seeming intent to act as a caretaker. due to trump, the long view may be unable to separate obama from bush, relegating obama to a kind of echo of bush. if hillary had won in october, the right historical question would have been why the country bothered voting for obama in the first place; as it is, the bush and obama years are likely to end up merged into bush-obama.

but, there is a specific anomaly in his presidency that will likely live on for a long time in climatological records: there weren't any hurricanes under obama.

it's curious how it played out. we had record temperatures near the end, year over year, but no increase in atlantic hurricanes.

i know, i know: you can't blame the hurricane directly on the carbon. but, we were supposed to have them in increasing intensity and increasing frequency.

i've been wondering for a while if he 'flipped a switch'. which means what?

well, the official rational explanation (tm) no doubt argues that the atmospheric patterns over north america were coincidentally such that they kept large storms offshore. perfectly reasonable.

look at what is happening in houston right now - the storm is being blocked from moving north. and, it could be a lingering coincidence.

but, maybe this new guy flipped the switch back - because it's just a bunch of bullshit anyways, right?

the next guy could always flip it back, again - if there's any record left of it ever existing.

what i'll say is this: i think this curious low in atlantic hurricanes under obama will fascinate scientists for a very long time.