One of my childhood memories was watching live coverage of Hurricane Katrina on The Weather Channel and other local news stations from all the way over here in Southern California. It was mind-blowing to watch as it tore through Louisiana and Mississippi, leaving an unimaginable trail of destruction in its wake. Seeing that followed up by Rita in Texas and Wilma in Florida left a deep impression on me.
My 8 year old self wondered "Is this the new norm?", because up until that point I had never heard of such intense hurricanes causing so much destruction across such a large area of the country, all in one hurricane season. It would turn out I was right, as I came to understand how climate change worked beyond the leaves around my home browning sooner than expected. The summers growing hotter than ever before. The rain becoming scarcer that what memory served. The 2008 Atlantic Hurricane season showed me that, as did 2012, 2017, 2018, 2020, 2021, and 2022. It wasn't rare anymore. This was the way things were.