With global warming, giant storms now get the film-star treatment

Clouds now offer a silver lining for those looking for real baddies, as even James Bond appears to have run out of villains with truly destructive ambitions now and is revisiting old foes. In this era of nuclear deterrence and monitoring, there is no weapon of mass destruction quite like a good storm. Call them cyclones, hurricanes or typhoons, badtempered clouds have always been a feature of our watery planet, but never have they reached such a cult status as today.

Little wonder then that weather forecasters are now tracking clouds with the aplomb of latter-day John Constables, perhaps under pressure to find “depressions” worthy of being talked up to “monster” proportions and inevitable transcontinental infamy. Old classifications — even grandiose ones as “supercyclones” — will not do any more; these vaporous whirligigs need names, not to mention features and characteristics.

As storms are by nature ephemeral, age does not wither their infinite variety, so it is not surprising that their vital statistics are monitored as minutely as the film stars whose names they often echo. Unfortunately, global warming appears to be boosting this storm frenzy by causing most weather systems to puff up to ever-greater proportions. Now, that is a nubilous distinction we can do something about.