Wildfire smoke engulfed the iconic skyline of New York, blotting out the Empire State Building in a dystopian orange haze. A massive heat dome broke temperature records in Texas, straining the power grid and killing 13 people. Torrential rain flooded the Hudson Valley and Vermont, washing homes off their foundations and forcing residents to navigate downtown streets by canoe. This summer, the United States resembles the set of a blockbuster disaster movie. As extreme weather engulfs almost every part of the nation — from intense precipitation in the Northeast to a sharp increase in temperatures on land and in the ocean in the Southeast and Southwest — even scientists who track climate change are startled.

Related articles: 

• Washington Post: Floods, fires and deadly heat are the alarm bells of a planet on the brink
• California Courts: Courts Prepare for Rise in Climate and Water Law Cases
• The Atlantic: Climate change feels more real now than ever