Smoke from wildfires miles away filling the air; tornadoes leaving a path of destruction; heavy rains causing creeks, streams and rivers to overflow and flood streets and towns.

These are extreme weather events that our region has seen every single year for the past few years.

While floods and fires have been going on for centuries, scientists agree that they have become more frequent and more extreme due to the earth’s heating from climate change.

A new report from the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering and Medicine links climate change to extreme weather.

The report, prepared by a committee of 14 scholars representing meteorology, law, sociology, civil engineering and other disciplines, studies the impact that extreme weather events have on localities, such as mortalities and economic losses.

While we are fortunate that Saturday’s tornado and windstorm in the Hancock area did not cause any deaths, nor injuries (see story on page 1A), it would not be unlikely for such events to cause those outcomes. Furthermore, our towns are well aware of the funding efforts needed to restore roads and infrastructure following a flood.

The report was sponsored by the National Science Foundation, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, the Bezos Earth Fund, and the Heising-Simons Foundation.

The findings include a conclusion that states, “Human-caused changes to the thermodynamics of the climate system have a direct and well-understood impact on extreme temperatures, extreme rainfall, and compound hot-dry events.”

As extreme weather events continue, we hope that everyone will look at the science.