I am not a scientist, just a watcher.  Where I live on the western U.S. coast, the weather has been very cool for this time of year.  What's strange is that the temperatures haven't varied at all from day to day for over six weeks.  At night the fog comes in and blocks out the stars and moon, and the next day the sun comes out around noon....repeating the same pattern day after day after day.  Although the cool ocean temperatures account for the cool weather, it doesn't account for the unchanging daily low and high temperatures.  There are high pressure ridges that have formed in unusual places for a long period of time around the world.  I've lived here for 23 years and the summer pattern is one of change from day to day.  The week might start out cool and end up hot, or warm for a week and hot or cool the next.  This sameness of temperature everyday feels unnatural.  No matter what spin the experts put on this summer's worldwide weather, it is very STRANGE.  My feeling is that the hurricane season in the GOM will NOT be active this year.  It's not just the temperature of the ocean that affects storms,  it the upper atmosphere as well.  Here's an interesting link about why it may be a quiet year for big storms world wide. http://www.wunderground.com/blog/JeffMasters/show.html