What’s the forecast for regulatory scrutiny of deals so far this year? There may be more cloud cover than storms on the M&A horizon. New antitrust scrutiny and a longer review time are potential looming threats, but they lack the lightning needed to actually block deals.

Let’s look at these twin threats and the risks they pose to dealmaking. President Biden’s executive order has spurred the Department of Justice and Federal Trade Commission to increase scrutiny of deals in a move that, “if implemented by regulators and upheld by the courts…could lead to the most robust antitrust enforcement in decades,” writes Debevoise & Plimpton lawyers in a recent note. But that’s a big ‘if.’ The attorneys write that actually intensifying competition review standards would require acts of Congress and/or litigation. Both regulatory agencies have mixed records in courts. And it’s unclear if Democrats will defy the political gravity that has historically weighed down incumbent presidents’ party performance in midterm elections to win a mandate to rewrite antitrust laws.

What about the other lingering storm cloud on the periphery? A frenetic M&A pace has overwhelmed oversight body the Federal Trade Commission to the extent that it’s warned companies the expiration of the standard 30-day waiting period is no longer an implicit approval of a deal, Bloomberg reports. That creates a threat of enforcement even after deals have closed.

Amidst the merger deluge, a few high-profile deals have been challenged, but context is king: the handful of challenged deals represent a small slice of the year’s record value of announced transactions.

For starters, some of the highest profile deals challenged by the new administration’s antitrust regime represent merger dynamics that have always drawn intense scrutiny. Aon Plc’s proposed $30 billion takeover of Willis Towers Watson (Nasdaq: WLTW), announced only five years after Willis Group’s $18 billion merger with Towers Watson, was challenged by the DOJ as taking the industry from three competitors to two. So called “3 to 2” mergers have always been a bright line for regulators. And the insurance investment bankers I’ve spoken to for a decade about industry consolidation have long steered clear of attempts to marry those players or Marsh & McLennan (NYSE: MMC) out of fear of this precise outcome.

There are wild cards that could skew my forecast. It’s true that zealous enforcement of vertical merger review guidelines has created unexpected scrutiny of some sectors, and that agencies’ evolving theories of harm could disproportionately put tech deals at risk. But on the whole, the latest policy announcements may well be more thunder than lightning.