Crap shoot: On Hurricane Season Eve it’s appropriate to consider the important variables, like cold-water upwelling, wind sheer, strike probablilities and El Niño, as well as life’s more esoteric unpredictables like chance, fate, karma or divine retribution, whatever you want to call it.

Some might say that Editor Jon is gambling daily that the San Andreas fault won’t open up and swallow him and a couple hundred thousand of his fellow Los Angelitos. By the same token, folks could say that Editor Trish and I are playing the odds — perhaps long ones — that we won’t get blown to hell and gone by a hurricane during the next six months.

Granted, by choosing to live where we live we are figuratively placing a bet that the really big bad things won’t happen to us. Same with folks in the Midwest with tornadoes and folks in the Mississippi River Valley with floods. And you know what? That’s okay because we figure we know the odds and we hunker down and prepare for the worst while hoping for the best.

But, according to the Miami Herald, there is a class of individual out there who is gambling on my potential misfortune. These are people placing what are called “proposition bets” on Web sites, playing the odds and trying to predict whether Florida will get clobbered by a Category 3 or higher hurricane this season.

Weather forecasts, which are based on probability, lend themselves easily to oddsmaking. But professional forecasters, who view their job as a public service, say that’s not what they have in mind when they issue predictions.

”What’s sad about this is essentially people are placing bets on an issue that affects people’s lives. That’s kind of sad,” said National Weather Service spokesman Greg Romano.

”Forecasts are there for people to help protect themselves, their lives and their property,” he said.

But wait, before we write off the owners of these sites as a life form on the level of, say, slime mold, they claim to have feelings and standards.

Mickey Richardson, CEO of BetCris.com, a Costa-Rica based site offering several hurricane-related propositions, said the idea of betting on calamities seemed depraved at first. But customers demanded the wagers.

”We had to wrestle with it, some people view it as a morbid thing to offer,” he said of his site’s storm-season bets. “But we can’t stop hurricanes. There’s been a true interest in it from the public.”

Richardson, along with CEOs of other sites, including wagerweb.com, said they’ve refused to take bets on the amount of destruction or casualties.

Well that’s a relief. At least they’re not betting on whether I’ll be maimed or killed, just how badly my hair will be mussed.

Look, I don’t really care if these idiots are betting on whether we’ll get pasted this summer or autumn like we got pasted last year — I’m gambling, too. But I’m placing my bets on 3/4-inch plywood, Duracell batteries, Coleman camping gear and FEMA. Okay, not FEMA, but on having a plan and being prepared and making sure the liquor cabinet is stocked.

So I might get whumped again this year. There’s a 1 to 5 probability that I will. But if it happens, I can take some small comfort in knowing that the dolts who bet $5 that I would get whacked will only get a payout of $1. Small vengeance, perhaps, but on Hurricane Season Eve, we are grateful for any source of comfort, no matter how small.