Call us nerds, or geeks and dorks. But we love nothing more than discovering a new online data source. Here, for the enjoyment of our fellow nerds, is the Colorado State University hurricane records portal. Exhibit number 1 is the global number of tropical cyclones since 1980.

Maybe slip a printout of that into the stocking of your favourite climate emergency activist. And if you really want to startle your alarmist relatives at the holiday dinner table, check out the Accumulated Cyclone Energy record.

Here it is:

The nice thing about the ACE index is that it takes all the global hurricane data and adds it up in proportion to the total energy contained in the storm systems. It is basically an index of how harmful hurricane activity is each year. And as you can see, it’s not going up, and more likely is drifting down. Over a 40 year period, when the world was warming and we’ve all been going to die too many times to count, the climate system has yawned and said the changes are no big deal. You can see why we find data so much fun.