Climate Change is Official according to UK MET Office

The UK's Met Office has declared that extreme weather is the UK's new normal. Record-breaking heat, strong storms, and changing rainfall patterns all point to a "notably different" climate from what it was just a few decades ago. Climate change is making severe storms both more common and more intense. Having lived in Ireland for almost 20 years now, we have noted the differences. Periods of no rain, then heavy downpours. Days of hot weather followed by a boomerang change. 

Meanwhile, the US has been rocked by four 1000-year events in less than a week, five if you include yesterday's floods in New York, New Jersey and Connecticut. Subways flooded, rivers taking out roads, homes inundated, cars swept away, lives lost -- it's the new normal. And the Administration wants to cut FEMA and "drill baby drill". Climate madness. 

Our infrastructure was designed for an environment we no longer live in. In 2020, the federal government reclassified New York City from the coastal temperate climate zone to a subtropical climate. It’s as if New York City moved 500 miles south.

Some 20 years ago, in my last year of commuting from NJ to NY, our train was diverted to the downtown area because the tubes in midtown Manhattan had flooded in a sudden rain event. That frightened me. Had our train been in those tubes, we might have all died. I didn't want to risk that again. Thankfully, we broke away and left that world behind. Meanwhile, Rockland County, Westchester County and Upper Bergen County were flooded, and roads were closed. Roads were washed away in Passaic County. I'm so glad to be where we are now.

Where we are now with climate change is that some species will adapt, some will migrate away and new species will move in. People who try to preserve the status quo will have to learn that climate adaptation requires change. Professor Perlmutter, my ecology professor at NYU, taught us that the ecology of the world was always changing. Species appear and disappear for good reasons, and it's not always human interference at work, nor is it right for humans to try to stop it. 

Yesterday, we were to get lots of rain. We heard the thunder but got little rain until nighttime. We don't really get lightning storms here so much yet, but they were reportedly all around us. The rain cooled our temperatures down significantly, and today was quite pleasant. Everything that hasn't perished in the heat and drought is growing exponentially. Perhaps our vines will like the change and adapt to produce great wines. The new normal? I'd better get used to it.