Karen demands attention but doesn’t deserve it. And Jerry is a show about nothing.

As we conclude this first full week of October, there are two tropical storms in the Atlantic. Neither one amounts to much.

Subtropical Storm Karen spawned off an old cold front on which low pressure had formed. That low pressure center acquired some tropical characteristics, including a tighter area of rotation, strong thunderstorm activity, and a warmer core. This was enough for the National Hurricane Center (NHC) to classify it as a hybrid polar-tropical system—a subtropical storm.

The most interesting thing about Karen is where it formed. The low had been traversing waters running just under 2 degrees Fahrenheit warmer than normal, a condition made four times more likely by climate change according to

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