Going by the counting statistics, the 2013 storm season was fairly typical -- with the huge exception of Typhoon Haiyan, Bloomberg reported.

According to the World Meteorological Organization, 86 storms occurred this year; the national average since 1981 is 89.

The locations of storms and their classification, however, were anything but predictable. The duration and strength of storms in the Atlantic were its weakest since 1994. Only two reached hurricane status, and those were both classified as level one on a five-level scale.

The Western North Pacific carried this year's totals with 30 storms by November, already six more than the annual average for the region. Thirteen were typhoons (the western north pacific equivalent of a hurricane), including Haiyan, which reached level four status and bordered on level five. Seven typhoons formed in October alone, a record according to the Sydney Morning Herald. Prior to that, the number of typhoons was actually below pace.

Haiyan was the strongest storm of the year and one of the strongest ever to strike in the Northwest Pacific, according to the Sydney Morning Herald. In combination with its strength, the storm became so destructive because it struck a populous area of the Philippines at the same time it reached its peak strength.

As U.N. climate talks are taking place in Warsaw, Bloomberg pointed out that the mostly average -- if oddly proportioned -- storm season may not have been a direct result of global warming. Yet, the desolation that occurred in the Philippines may have been multiplied because of one direct effect of global warming: higher sea levels.

Aided by the fact that 2013 is on pace to become one of the top 10 hottest years ever since the WMO began documenting such measures in 1850, sea levels were at their highest recorded levels ever in March, according to Bloomberg. Higher seas make coastal populations like those in the Philippine's more susceptible to natural disasters.

"Although individual tropical cyclones cannot be directly attributed to climate change, higher sea levels are already making coastal populations more vulnerable to storm surges," WMO Secretary-General Michel Jarraud said in a statement. "We saw this with tragic consequences in the Philippines."