Penn State celebrity climate scientist Michael Mann announced in April that his research group’s 2024 North Atlantic season forecast was expecting an “unprecedented” 33 named storms, with a range between 27 and 39. That prediction has turned out to be a dud.
With Hurricane Francine hitting the coasts Thursday, the total number of named storms only comes to six, making it one of the quietest hurricane seasons to date. The Atlantic hurricane season continues through Nov. 30. It’s possible, but highly unlikely, the season will produce 27 more named storms and make Mann’s prediction accurate.
“Scientists can make successful seasonal predictions based on the climate information they have, providing grounds for trust in longer-term climate predictions, particularly human-caused warming and its impacts,” a report on Mann’s forecast in the Penn State publication Penn Today explained.
In the politicized world of climate science, the science is supposed to be “settled.” Those who have doubts about climate change predictions are labeled deniers. So, failed forecasts have scientists eating crow.
Mann’s prediction received the usual media attention from a number of different outlets, making references to how warming oceans and climate change were fueling extreme weather events. Now with the hurricane season refusing to produce the “turbocharged” extreme weather climate journalists have been warning about, these reporters are worried that people will start to doubt the alarm. Mann is infamous for suing critics of his work for defamation.
The Washington Post noted that it’s the “longest stretch in more than half a century without a single late-summer cyclone.” Meteorologists, the Post reports, are “wrestling with confusion” and hoping they can still “protect delicate public trust.” […]
— Read More: justthenews.com
