As we enter the final month of the Atlantic hurricane season, there is — finally — nothing to report. Whether it stays that way remains to be seen, but for now, the tropics are quieter than they’ve been in weeks. There is no obvious “Gamma” candidate lurking out there. (The “proto-Gamma” I mentioned yesterday was largely sheared apart, and now does not appear likely to develop.)

In the eastern Pacific, the remnants of Hurricane Beta have emerged over open water, but there are “no signs of redevelopment.” That’s kind of a bummer, because I was really looking forward to calling the redeveloped storm — which would have gotten a new, Pacific name — the “cyclone formerly known as β.” Oh well, you can’t have everything. :)

On a more serious note, Dr. Jeff Masters writes that in Central America, where Beta made landfall, “No deaths have been reported…and it appears that Beta was too small to trigger the heavy rains required to cause a major disaster. The National Hurricane Center will probably not have to retire Beta’s name from the list of Atlantic hurricanes.” Well, thank goodness for that.

With nothing new in the tropics to talk about, Bryan Woods at The Storm Track is looking back at what was happening fourteen years ago today: The Perfect Storm.