Atlantic cyclone activity at 8 AM EDT. Click image for latest forecast and track

Or maybe she just has a twisted sense of humor. It has not rained in large swaths of the very large state of Texas for a year, and this summer has been by far the hottest on record. It’s dry here, so dry that parts of the state are on fire or lay in smoking ruin. Our Governor, Tricky Ricky, sent out his vaunted rain proclamation in April and followed it up with a group rain dance in August. Since then a dozen tropical storms have formed, several becoming major hurricanes. It’s been an active season:

Nate is the 14th named storm this year, and comes three days before the climatological half-way point of the Atlantic hurricane season, September 10. A typical hurricane season has just 10 – 11 named storms, so we’ve already had 35% more than a whole season’s worth of storms before reaching the season’s half-way point. At this rate, 2011 will see 28 named storms, equalling the all-time record set in 2005.

Everyone of them has missed the Lone Star state by a country mile. There are currently three, count em three, Atlantic cyclones churning about and one of them, Nate, is a short drive away by local standards. It is forecast to hit the Texas coast. By the time it does, given the current sea surface temperatures and heat gradient in the gulf, Nate could easily be a major hurricane with rain bands extending into the drought-stricken central portions as far north as Dallas.

Will it? Maybe, hopefully, but if it doesn’t it’ll be even more evidence that Perry’s God doesn’t like him.