Extreme Weather and the Environment

It's Sunday afternoon and Hurricane Wilma has left the Yucatan Peninsula, damaging the resort areas of Cancun and Cozumel.  She has turned her sights toward the West Coast of Florida.  While for the first time in recorded weather history, a tropical storm is whirling in the Atlantic with the name Alpha.  Once the gender-based names have been exhausted, the storms are named after the letters of the Greek alphabet.  This is the first time that has happened, truly an "Alpha" situation. 

Global Warming, or historical trend?  It seems the answer to that question depends on who you ask.  It would be hard to find any scientist who would deny that the atmosphere is getting warmer.  Where opinions differ widely is when we start to talk about the effects from that warming.  There is a political factor to the answer also.  The more right-leaning expert might say that the hurricanes are entirely due to historical trends.  We are in a period of heavier Atlantic tropical activity that can be shown to be part of an approximately 30 year trend.  A more left-leaning or environmentally concerned scientist might say Global Warming.  One could find numerous experts to support either argument.  So what is happening?  Perhaps both answers are correct.  One doesn't necessarily exclude the other.  We are in a trend for more storms.  What is most likely occurring is that the trend is being enhanced by the warmer water and atmosphere caused by warming.  What does this tell us about the future?  We can expect the trends to expand.  What used to be considered a high storm season might become the norm, while peak season trends will break new records.