The last few weeks have been a perfect storm of weird weather events. With hurricanes wreaking havoc all over the Gulf of Mexico, and shockwaves being felt all over the continental US, the normal weather patterns have been turned completely upside down. Weather watchers and, no doubt, insurance adjusters are asking the following: But what is the origin of this meteorological madness and how has Atlanta been  coping with this change in the winds.

One of the most publicized and most destructive aspects of the recent storm surge has been Hurrican Harvey. Smashing into the Texas from the Gulf it has caused massive destruction around the Houston area, destroying hundreds of thousands of structures and leaving millions without a home. Many experts blame Houston’s susceptibility to Harvey’s wrath on their unfettered expansion of the metropolitan area, which has cleared out the marshes around Houston which have traditionally served as natural barriers to incursions of extreme weather. They warn that in the future Houston might have to temper its development patterns to limit environmental impacts. Unfortunately Harvey was far from the end of this season of storms as another Hurricane was looming on the horizon

Hurricane Irma hit Florida in the early morning of Sept. 10 and preceded to push through the state leading to a state of emergency being declared and more than 6.5 million residents to be evacuated. Mass flooding and power outages spread all through the state. By September 11 the storm had moved into Georgia causing havoc all throughout the state. Fortunately Atlanta received a comparatively minor beating from Irma with minimal damage being caused. However there were still large scale blackouts leading to three days of school being cancelled and numerous businesses and homes being put out of commision.

There have been various explanations given for this spike in Hurricane activity. One of the most widely discussed being climate change due to the above average heating of the Atlantic. Many experts hope this season will serve as a wake up call for the current presidential administration which has been actively opposed to climate change reform in the past.

Others like meteorologist Michael Greshko say this hurricane season hasn’t really been that out of the ordinary and is part of an established pattern of yearly storms.

Whatever the cause of these storms this is sure to be a season that will America will not soon forget.