When I read this article in the New York Times today (click here for the link) about severe weather in California this week, I felt like I was reading the script of one of those apocalypse movies. You’ve seen it all staged before: Winds high enough to shatter windows. Trees crushing people. SUVs floating down the road like tin cans. Thousands of people being run out of their homes. Rockslides. Highways closed. Except, of course, this is reality and it’s happening now in both southern and northern California. So if Steven Spielberg isn’t responsible for this, who, or what, is?

Here are some of the latest photos:

It is very easy to report on the weather. Usually, those stories are pretty shallow: there’s a reporter holding an umbrella telling you it’s raining. But when weather in southern California gets this bad, I think it’s time to go into more depth about the causes of such destruction. Experts all over the place agree that global warming leads to the increased frequency and intensity of natural disasters. Yes, more scientific data is needed to strengthen this hypothesis and yes, no one disaster is ever solely caused by climate change. There are other factors, like natural variation, at play as well which should not be ignored. BUT, when I read a bazillion different versions of the statement below, I can’t help but be convinced that when winds blow hard enough to smash beachside window panes, it is not because Poseidon woke up on the wrong side of the bed this morning. Greenpeace reports:

Current scientific evidence strongly suggests… that hurricanes/typhoons tend to become more destructive as ocean temperatures rise…The large [storm] upswing in the last decade is unprecedented, and probably reflects the effect of global warming.

I don’t think we should wait until it’s raining to remember our umbrellas. The long-term answer to appeasing severe weather is environmental protection. If you were sweeping two inches of water out of your living room this afternoon, you might be more inclined to think about how our carbon footprints are effecting climate change and, subsequently, natural disasters.