As a child growing up in Cincinnati, in the Fifties, I enjoyed the rumble of thunder in the night. Since we did not have air conditioning, we would open the windows at night, allowing cool air from the storm to invade our house. We didn't seem to worry about severe thunderstorms or tornados, weather phenomena that we associated with the Great Plains.
Now, as our climate warms, almost every storm system spawns severe thunderstorms, destructive winds, torrential rain or tornados. The most recent storm front arrived just after midnight, bringing intense lightning and heavy rain to our region; fortunately, we escaped the hail and high winds that now lash a corridor from Texas to the Great Lakes.
But the front has stalled and will drift back north late today and tomorrow, enhancing our risk for flooding, severe thunderstorms and tornados. The energy in Earth's atmosphere has increased significantly since my childhood days and the consequences are readily apparent across the globe.
