"In the realm of Nature, nothing is purposeless, trivial or unnecessary," wrote the 12th century rabbi Maimonides, of whom, you may have noticed, we hear very little nowadays.
His apophthegm, however, is particularly apposite right now in the context of our recent storms. Such occurrences may sometimes seem to be an inconvenience, but their volatility plays a vital role in our planet's viability.
If the perennial depressions of the north Atlantic were not there, energy received from the sun would be spread less evenly over the Earth's surface. They are an essential mechanism for controlling global temperature.
The amount of solar radiation absorbed by the Earth varies greatly with latitude and depends mainly on the apparent angle of the sun: more energy is absorbed in the areas near the equator than near the poles. However, for balance there must also be a mechanism by which the Earth can lose some heat.
This it does through "longwave" radiation, a process most noticeable on a cold, starry night when the temperature drops dramatically, but which, in fact, takes place all the time.
A delicate balance exists so that the total heat lost by longwave radiation almost exactly equals that gained directly from the sun.
However, there's a snag. Longwave radiation takes place uniformly over the surface of the Earth - although the tropics radiate slightly more because of their higher temperature compared to the cold polar regions.
Yet without some regulating mechanism, the tropics would consistently gain more energy than they lose and become boiling hot. The reverse would happen at high latitudes, where the poles, with little incoming energy, would suffer a net loss of heat and become colder and colder.
Clearly, in order to avoid this undesirable scenario, there must be a net transfer of energy from the equator towards the poles.
The energy transfer is brought about by what might be described as the "moving parts" of the earth-atmosphere system - the ocean currents and the winds.
In our hemisphere, a northerly wind carries cold air equatorwards, and a southerly wind brings warm air northwards in the direction of the pole. The net effect is to transport heat from those zones where the sun provides it generously to other regions less well endowed.
At our latitudes, this transfer of energy is achieved in part by the circulation of wind around the depressions which so frequently affect us. They may bring miserable weather but at least the process is all part of some grand meteorological design.