My region’s climate has changed significantly in my lifetime, and, seemingly to me, more quickly than before in the past ten years. It is dismaying. Here are some of my observations of it from this week:

• It has been over 90ºF every day since late last week, and it is only early June. Ninety degrees is not just hot for June here: it is hot for summer.

• My daughter’s elementary school has two early release days in a row this week, due to excessive heat. I have heard of such things happening in the South, but never where I have lived (New Jersey now, New England before that).

• People (including my family) don’t have our kids play outside that much because is too hot, and the air quality too bad, to do so.

• I saw more people exercising after dark (after 9 PM) yesterday than I did out during the daytime.