Sometimes it's the little things. I'm in Pennsylvania this week, spending time with my 94-year-old father.
When I was in high school, Dad would leave newspaper clippings of weather stories by my cereal bowl every morning. That, along with weather merit badge in Boy Scouts, great science teachers and a tropical storm named Agnes, fanned my interest in meteorology.
He still saves articles for me, including a recent New York Times story about a World Weather Attribution study estimating 500,000 deaths from the 10 deadliest extreme weather events since 2004, made worse by warming from burning fossil fuels. Dad was skeptical about climate change, too, but no more. Too many coincidences.
Showery rains continue today with another surge of rain on Election Day before skies dry out by midweek. Daytime highs are mostly in the 50s looking out eight to 10 days, still 5-10 degrees higher than average. No bitter fronts in sight yet.
We are keeping an eye on the Gulf of Mexico for "Rafael," which may become a storm or hurricane.
