Wild weather: The dawn of climate change? The End of Days?

A man walks through a dried, cracked reservoir bed in Spain

I had an extraordinary experience today.
I was driving west in northern Macomb County when a massive downpour hit. The rain was coming down so hard, in sheets, that I was ready to pull over due to a lack of visibility.
Then, after about three minutes, it was over. We went from pouring rain to no rain in a matter of seconds. And the sun came out.
One of the weirdest things about this very brief but very intense storm was that there was no thunder or lightning. When it was over, the wind had calmed to a barely perceptible breeze.

About an hour later, I experienced a nearly identical storm. With the streets already flooding in some places and dark storm clouds on the horizon I couldn’t help but think about the deadly floods this week in Texas and Oklahoma.

But this second storm only lasted about 10 minutes. Yet again, despite ominous clouds and a pounding rainfall – no lightning, no thunder. And the sun reappeared quickly.
This could be related to the unusual amount of heat and, especially, humidity that we’ve experienced this May. We’re undergoing what I would call south Florida weather – sheets of rain followed quickly by a parting of the clouds and a heavy dose of sunshine. Only to be repeated again.
But I noticed something else earlier this week. On Monday and Tuesday we were hit with a blast of hot winds – strong, persistent gusts – but the rain that normally follows never came. I’ve never faced California’s famed Santa Ana winds but I suspect they feel something like that.

Now, I understand the difference between weird weather and long-term climate change. But we all have to admit that in the past several years the U.S. has experienced way more than its share of bizarre meteorological occurrences. And we will all pay for it eventually through dramatically higher insurance rates for homeowners and businesses and higher food prices.

All of this wacky weather of recent days amounts to very little for those of us in southeast Michigan, but across the globe Mother Nature has become the enemy.

Torrential rain left much of Texas and parts of Oklahoma swamped Wednesday after wild weather – a once-every-500-years-flood -- killed at least 28 people in the United States and along the Mexican border. In Houston, the nation’s fourth-largest city, the mayor warned more flooding could be in store.
These massive storms – up to 6 inches of rain per hour – come after Texas and Oklahoma had experienced relentless heat and drought conditions over the past three summers. Beyond the flash floods, the violent weather events of recent days have included dozens of intense tornadoes.
Hundreds of vehicles, some fully under water, were abandoned on Houston's roads as the waters rose to 13 feet at some highway underpasses. Many of those vehicles will be “totaled” by insurance companies. What’s more, massive destruction of farmers’ crops and landscaping nurseries is feared.

Meanwhile, the dangerous drought conditions in California show no signs of letting up, posing more pain for our economy’s agricultural sector. In Alaska, bizarre levels of spring heat have emerged as a potential disaster to the northernmost state’s way of life.

Overseas in India, where there is no such thing as a “dry heat” and air conditioning is a luxury, the 111-degree temperatures of recent weeks have forced much of the population to stay indoors as the government declared a public health emergency amid 500 heat-related deaths. How bad is it? Indian roads are melting.
At the same time, devastating weather has wreaked havoc from China to the Middle East to Brazil and Chile. Israeli officials have warned tourists that this summer will bring “boiling” temperatures.

So, we can continue to ignore the vast majority of climatology scientists and the Defense Department and NASA in their continued warnings about the impending impact of climate change? Certainly, we can debate how much of this planetary mess is man-made.

But climate change deniers better come up with an answer to all the economic destruction that this weather is causing and how we can mitigate the costs it imposes on average Americans.

It does not appear to be going away anytime soon.