Now that the Atlantic hurricane season is officially over (though in fact hurricane Epsilon is still churning away and who knows if we won't sneak in another) a bunch of stories are appearing with retrospectives on the season. I particularly liked this graphic from the LA Times:

Would you say that shows hurricanes in an oscillation with no trend, or hurricanes rising on a trend?

The answer looks pretty clear to me: the best fit would be an oscillation riding on top of a rising trend. Note the way the last dip of the oscillation barely falls below the last peak, and the current peak is way above the prior peaks. Looks like it's going to be rather challenging developing oil and gas in the GoM for the next decade till we figure out how to do it with regular Cat 4 and 5 storms. Big version of the picture below the fold for those with wide screens.