Earlier this year, after being frustrated one too many times by someone I know claiming that climate change isn't real because it happened to be really cold outside (in New Jersey in January), it dawned on me that maybe I should keep better track of some of the extreme weather phenomenon going on around the planet in recent years. In particular, the focus has been record heat, although I figured that other extreme weather incidents, such as flooding, should also fall under this umbrella. It certainly was not my intention to keep dishing these out after every single incident like this, to make it seem like I am trying to pile these blog entries up to make some kind of a point. It's just that these kinds of horrific things just keep occurring.
Indeed, weather patterns have grown more extreme as the years go by. It is exactly as scientists predicted decades ago. Don't let the name "global warming" fool you. Scientists never said that the Earth would simply grow hotter and hotter, everywhere and all of the time without seasonal variations. They never said that it wouldn't get cold or even snowy during the winters, or that it might be unseasonably cool for a stretch in, say, Florida, or elsewhere around the world.
No, what they predicted - with deadly accuracy, I might add - is that weather patterns would grow more extreme because of the global trend of global warming. That there might not only be snowstorms or cold patches, but that these might grow more extreme. That there might be record rain storms in some regions, record droughts in other regions, and that temperatures around the globe would trend warmer.
What we are seeing is all of that coming to pass. That is why I am trying on my tiny platform to also spread the word and show people just how this is happening. Seemingly everywhere, all at once. Just in recent days. Just in the month of August, I basically reported on two separate heat waves across the eastern United States, another one in the western (particularly northwestern) portion, a massive heatwave that is breaking record hot temperatures and literally setting parts of countries ablaze across much of Europe, a glacier melting and causing problems in Patagonia in the southern extreme of South America, another glacier melting and causing problems in Alaska in the northern tip of North America, record heat in the Far East of Asia, in Japan and South Korea and Vietnam, record flooding in China and Pakistan and India, and still more record floods in Texas, New York, New Jersey, Wisconsin, and now, in Tennessee.
Indeed, we are seeing yet another region going through stunning flooding here in the United States. This time, it was in Chattanooga, Tennessee. About six inches of rain fell on Tuesday evening, and it caused severe floods. If you read the article by Sean Breslin (see link below), you will read how officials there attempting to reach people to provide assistance and/or evacuation are having difficulty even reaching some places, because so many areas there are flooded. They also make it clear that they have never seen it so bad as this.
It feels like this is happening more and more frequently, and that these incidents are also growing increasingly severe, at that. The death toll rose to four in Tennessee after these floods. There are areas which saw considerable damage.
Not to sound like a broken record, but it feels like it's time to acknowledge what frankly feels obvious at this point: this is not normal. Of course there have been shifts in climate in the past. However, does this really feel natural? Again, all of this too closely resembles the frankly accurate predictions of scientists dating back well over half a century now.
Time to take all of this seriously.
Here is the link to the news story by Weather.com, which is where I got the specific information regarding the recent flooding in Chattanooga:
Chattanooga Flooding Death Toll Rises To 4 by Sean Breslin• August 14, 2025:
More than 6 inches of rain caused deadly flooding in Chattanooga, Tennessee, on Tuesday evening. Three members of the same family died when the saturated ground caused a tree to fall on their car. Here's the latest.
https://weather.com/news/weather/news/2025-08-13-deadly-flooding-historic-rain-in-chattanooga-tennessee
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