Hatton was inspired to analyse the IPPC hurricane data after the climategate email revelations and found that although the North Atlantic hurricane activity increased significantly, the increase was cancelled out overall by diminished activity in the East Pacific. Thus, the declines balance the increases. His detailed report can be found in this PDF.

“When you average the number of storms and their strength, it almost exactly balances.”

Thus we are left to conclude there is no proof of any increase in atmospheric energy manifesting itself in storms.Hatton claims he is neither “a warmist nor a denialist”, but a scientist. Hatton has a PhD in meteorology for his study of tornados and waterspouts. He performed a z-test statistical analysis of the period 1999-2009 against 1946-2009 to test the six conclusions. He also ran the data ending with what the IPCC had available in 2007.

Hurricane ACE data from Ryan Maue

Warmists have to go back four years to use Katrina as their hobbyhorse for any claims of a link between global warming and increased storm events. After Hatton’s revelations it’s now high time to dismount.

Footnote:

The IPCC’s AR4 chapter dealing with hurricane events was lead was Kevin Trenberth, who features prominently in the Climategate emails. In 2005, the National Hurricane Center’s chief scientist Chris Landsea resigned his post in protest at the treatment of the subject by Trenberth.

As the blizzard-bound residents of the mid-Atlantic region get ready to dig themselves out of the third major storm of the season, they may stop to wonder two things: Why haven’t we bothered to invest in a snow blower and, also, what happened to climate change?

Our excitement immediately wore off as we continued reading. Here are some of the quotes that was obviously meant to tell readers that cold temperatures don’t mean the world isn’t warming.

Brace yourselves now — this may be a case of politicians twisting the facts. There is some evidence that climate change could in fact make such massive snowstorms more common, even as the world continues to warm.

But there have been hints that it was coming…That’s in part because of global warming — hotter air can hold more moisture, so when a storm gathers it can unleash massive amounts of snow. Colder air, by contrast, is drier; if we were in a truly vicious cold snap, like the one that occurred over much of the East Coast during parts of January, we would be unlikely to see heavy snowfall.

But as far as winter storms go, shouldn’t climate change make it too warm for snow to fall? Eventually that is likely to happen — but probably not for a while. In the meantime, warmer air could be supercharged with moisture and, as long as the temperature remains below 32°F, it will result in blizzards rather than drenching winter rainstorms.

I see why they put it in the health section. We feel so much better now that we know global warming is still intact, and we haven’t wasted all those research dollars.