I guess nothing is going to convince me. I've heard a lot of evidence that cheating did take place. It just seems so handy that it keeps getting "proven" false.

There used to be a lot more lightning. I would photograph it, and had hundreds of pictures, pretty much every year. Not the last few years. People forget how different the pattern was in the '90s and early 00s. It's very ridgy now, jet stream north even at cooler times.

Ahh. Yeah that’s why I hate these ridgy summers. No troughs = no shear and crappy mid-level lapse rates. Last subpar storm season in my area was 2016, which was also a hot/ridgy summer. People remember 2012 for the derecho, but forget that the storm season essentially shut down after that. Still high and dry imby, not holding my breath for anything fun to make it here, but I’ll be happy just to get some moderate rain.

It seems to be oceanic High pressures in both the Atlantic and Pacific that are making the eastern side of the oceans very warm. The current orientation is actually more +WPO, 0.9 correlation around and SW of Japan. Hopefully that pattern breaks. It's been +WPO 5/6 Winters (1 Neutral), and for most of the last 9 months. Puts a trough in Siberia and the Bering Strait.

Worst one of my lifetime. I'm 30 minutes north of Baltimore. cap was not breaking for anything in June/July.. I always was a believer in hotter temps producing the good storms, but this Summer it would take like 3 frontal boundaries to just have rainshowers despite 90s and 100s. I thought that was a pretty good indication that the hurricane season wouldn't be so wet. The pattern actually started in February when 24/28 days were cloudless. But it has rained a lot recently now. Pouring now.