Interesting. Prediction of hurricanes, earthquakes, even rainstorms isn't an exact science. Maybe won't ever be an exact science, and therefore will continue to be misunderstood. Nature doesn't work on our time scales, or on our "definitions" of how things should be or how they are categorized. Plants don't care what you call them, and storms really don't care of their sustained winds are over 74 mph or not. They just do their things, and we have to live with that. I don't mean that we shouldn't keep trying, especially in areas such as the Anatolian Fault zone, all of California, etc. Preparation for disaster is still 100 per cent useful. We need to keep trying, and in the case of weather, we've had some major successes.

There are many in government and private industry who want the National Weather Service to be disbanded, and weather to go into private prediction---no doubt for money. That would be a disaster.

As I recall, meteorologists predicted a lot of hurricanes for 2007, and there WERE a lot of hurricanes---just not big ones in the US. Being Americans, we never realize (to our shame and peril) that there is a LOT of world out there!