Climate, if it changes at all, evolves so slowly that the difference cannot be seen in a human lifetime. That was the opinion of most people, and nearly all scientists, through the first half of the 20th century. No longer. No matter how many times the press and the government has screamed at us that that we are living in a warming world Nature is screaming louder that it is getting cooler.

On Wednesday night August 17 the mercury in the Netherlands dropped to 0 degrees. This is unusual because never anywhere in the country at this time of year has the temperature dropped to freezing. According to Weather Online, in the period from 20 July to 21 August there has never been reported frost on the ground.

Record cold in parts of Europe—some the coldest in 100 years, some the coldest ever. That is the reality of August 13, 2016. Summer snows fell in Sweden and a city in Saxony experienced its coldest temperature on record. Is it just Europe that is dramatically turning colder, because of a slowing Atlantic current or the entire world?