Ominous Ice Storm in Costa Rica

India, Indonesia, Great Britain and Texas are flooding. The US Southwest, Southern Europe and parts of China are suffering serious droughts as the Amazon threatens to dry up and drought persists in areas of Australia.But the most ominous indication that sudden climate change is under way does not come from these areas. It comes from a storm that took place last week in Costa Rica. This storm involved extremely fine ice crystals, which were a form of sleet rather than hail. Sleet has fallen before in Costa Rica, but only very rarely and certainly never in summer. For this to occur, it means that the storm's vertical circulation must have been unusually intense, and the clouds must have reached far into the stratosphere. Over the past ten years, the difference between stratospheric temperatures and temperatures close to the ground has been increasing dramatically, setting the stage for unusual and violent storms. More bizarre storms can be expected, and some of them are almost certainly going to be more violent--or as in this case--more unusual than ever recorded before.