I am curious how the ACE stacks up now that Danielle has been churning for a while (and was a major) and with Earl a major and 97L about to do something. It seems I saw something posted that the ACE was around 25 and my question is what impact do these big storms, if they stick around for a while, even if out to sea, have on total ACE? As the number gets bigger, are the chances for big storms diminished? Is the ACE (accumulated cyclone energy) computed when the storm forms, or does its longevity add to the number? And finally, is there a limit to how much ACE can be expended? Or is the number/amount infinite? It seems improbable (but not impossible) that we could have hurricane after hurricane lining up. Seems there must be some balance or equilibrium point.

(Post moved to the appropriate Forum. Since I deal with storm totals rather than energy totals - I'll leave this one to somebody else.)