How has climate change affected your life / plans?

I live in Southern California.

I was born in the area and then right before I started to go to school I moved to Las Vegas so I grew up in a desert. My family would regularly take trips back “home” to see my grandparents and whenever we did I would get upset because to me California was a lush green paradise, especially compared to the endless flat expanses of dirt that is the valley LV is situated in.

Today it’s full of brown, essentially dead brush. And it’s constantly, literally, on fire. The husband and I have literally had to cancel multiple trips because there were no routes to the destination from fire. The greenery can come back to an extent after heavy rain but that’s not too likely to happen. When it does the truly dead brush will still be brown and grey.

The houses I grew up in and around had not been built for air conditioning, and that wasn’t because they were made before it was a thing, but simply because the climate was temperate year-round. Now the years regularly go over 100°F days in summer and even though I am very inland I have become familiar with the marine layer because it reaches all the way over here and makes things extra humid and miserable.

When people talk about the world changing they usually mean the people around them are changing, or maybe the buildings. But my world literally has changed and it’s not going to go back: it’s actively getting worse. The fact that climate change is not the number one thing on everyone’s mind is a sign of just how sick our society is.

I'm in the midwest and I have asthma. I've shifted from running outdoors to indoors on a treadmill due to the wildfires and air quality issues that come with it. It's disappointing since so many gains have been made in air quality since the 80s which has really improved my life.

I've been living in Colorado ski towns my whole adult life. Anecdotally, I've noticed two big things

1. In the summers, I feel like I used to be able to set my watch by the afternoon rain all summer long. We still have a monsoon season, but it seems much shorter and not nearly as consistent. Some days it rains all day, then we'll have a dry spell. Summer campfire bans were occasional, now they seem to be every other year.
2. We've had some really, really bad winters. There have been low-snow winters as long as we've been recording them (I know '77-'78 was supposed to be pretty terrible), but I feel like the "normal" winters are much rarer, "bad" winters are more common, and "big snow" winters are extremely rare.

I love skiing, but I've been considering a move back to the great lakes where I grew up just because it seems like the west is drying out and the midwest/northeast seem like they might do alright with global warming. Duluth and the UP both get nearly as snowy as here, but there's not much good skiing. Upstate NY, northern VT, and northern NH seem like they get decent snow off Ontario, and the skiing isn't great but they do have some small mountains. Have also thought about going to British Columbia or Alaska, but I think they're facing the same problems as Colorado.

I'm in France and my birding season in June was a hot pile of garbage. I'm also nearing menopause way too early at 40 and the hot flashes + the stupidly high temperatures means I have been living in literal hell. It makes going outside even more complicated.

It's been devastating to see the impact on nature. One of the forests I visit frequently suffered from a huge forest fire. I volunteer at a wildlife shelter (also something I've struggled to do this summer because of said heat and hot flashes) and every year the number if animala admitted keeps going up. At one point there were over 100 animals admitted per day. And this was -before- the forest fire.

A small note of hope, it's been heartening seeing the number of people volunteer to help out after the forest fire. Thousands of people expressed interedt in helping. We're still not allowed to go to the affected areas and search for injured wildlife but so many people have provided support whether through equipment, transportation, time, etc.

I live in the UK.

Im late 20's and remember a distinct transition between the seasons as a kid, whereas now it very much feels like a potluck draw as to what the weather is going to be like, with seasons appearing to blur together. We didnt need AC during the summer; light clothing was fine usually, and light bedsheets were enough at night. It wasnt bitingly cold or disruptively snowy in the winters; a nice coat and boots were enough for the hour of snow we had each year.
Now, living on my own, i dont bother cycling my clothes in my wardrobe out depending on the seasons because all weather is a possibility; I'm renovating with a priority on AC installation and temperature retention in the home, with window upgrades, reflective blinds, thermal curtains, etc; if i move in future I'll be taking into account the homes ability to accommodate renewables and AC, and they'll be the first things i install once settled in. It seems very short sighted to not even consider the weather and how it affects us nowadays, but I know its a British stereotype to enjoy a good moan and I'm no exception to that rule. I'd just like to complain about something worthwhile!

Man has it.

I’m in a transition in my life, where I’m figuring out what the next steps are, including where to live.

I currently rent an apartment on the last floor of a building. Because real estate has become stupidly expensive here, many people have started turning attics into apartments. Mine is fairly recent (2–3 years old). For three weeks so far, it reached 35 Celsius at around 2pm and would end up at 37 or 38 at around 6–7pm. Unlivable. I was homeless from 2pm to around 10–11pm. Nights were around 30 Celsius minimum. “Nothing we can do” says the owner.

There is also an ongoing drought because it hasn’t rain in 8 weeks so far. Temperature at 10–20 Celsius above “normal” (we should call it “the past” at this point), rain deficit is 26mm for the last 30 days, air quality is mediocre on the better days, I can smell fire sometimes.

The country I’m currently in will become very difficult to live in over the summer in the next few years. The models predict around 25 days a year of heatwave.

I’m looking to settle and buy a house. I have no idea where to go that won’t be a wasteland in 10–20 years and destroy the value of my house. I can’t afford to buy a second one so this is it, one shot.

So I’m paralyzed and can’t take a decision. I’m trying to move out of this oven apartment that I just moved into a couple months ago, but housing is scarce and expensive here so not much luck.

And since the last heatwave, I feel I am traumatized: I keep the windows open all night now. Temperature drops to 16–19 which is too cold for comfort but it feels like I can’t close the windows because I have to cool the place down even though it doesn’t go above 30 inside during the day (which used to be too hot but now it’s okay and moderately cool)

Beyond that, I’m scared for the future. The idiots in charge still have no clue. The heat causes crops failures, fertilizer is more and more expensive, animals are suffering… my city’s response? They bought buses without AC (because AC is bad and pollutes) that nobody wants to use because it’s 40+ Celsius inside all summer. Anyone who can either rides a bicycle (good) or drives because their cars have AC unlike the buses.

Well we had that little heat dome over Europe a little while ago. We also are experiencing a lot of droughts in the past few years where water utility companies have scrambled to make changes to retain more water during periods with more rain. Historically we tried to get rid of it as fast as possible (Netherlands). Next to droughts we also have issues with extreme rain in short periods (no those don't help with the droughts) causing all sorts of flooding issues in areas that are not prepared for it.

We also haven't had a Elfstedentocht since 1997. Which does need a pretty long period of consistent freezing temperatures. So it never was an annual event, but it would also not be thirty years between them.

I've been hesitant to respond on this thread because I've been feeling very bleak. After last week's horrifying smog (we hit an AQI of 600 for a couple of days), I got my doctor to bump up my antidepressant dosage. Because the immediate rational response to the unfurling climate disaster is to stay functional.

The Great Lakes region is supposedly a climate change refuge. I've got news for anyone thinking of relocating here - there are no safe places. Yes, it's actually stayed relatively cool, due to increased cloud cover from the heat-induced excessive moisture in the air and now, smoke particles. That comes with the following minor-to-major problems:

1. We got 4.2 meters (165 inches) of snowfall in the 2025/2026 winter season. City and county services were overwhelmed and couldn't keep the roads clear - driving conditions remained dangerous for weeks on end.

2. Flooding everywhere, much heavier and more intense storms than historical averages or extremes. More frequent gale-force winds, lightning strikes, and tornadoes in places they haven't hit before. Bridges and dams washed away, roads collapsed, power and Internet outages, houses destroyed, tree falls... Traffic is still a mess months later. Road repairs have had to be redone repeatedly due to alternating frost and heat damage. The infrastructure here isn't designed for this level of stress, and population growth has outstripped the throughput and maintenance capacity.

I've gotten subscribed to the county emergency warning system this past month because it's become obvious that standard weather apps reliant on increasingly spotty NOAA data aren't keeping up with short-notice local weather dangers anymore.

Personally, I didn't plant a vegetable garden this year because it remained too wet and cool out into June. Most of the gardening activity has been cleaning up fallen trees and branches, and trying to keep the Little Shop of Horrors-scale weed growth and invasives under control.

3. Burgeoning insect populations, high pollen counts, and plant diseases. The last time I went for a hike, literal clouds of mosquitoes, impervious to repellents, chased me back indoors. Dog owners of my acquaintance are reporting they haven't been able to keep the ticks off everything. We've had four waves of ant invasions so far this year, and had to have carpenter ants (as damaging as termites) exterminated twice because they love continuously wet wood.

We lost an apple tree and an old pine, the boxwood hedges around the house are blighted. The forests in the area have been dramatically afflicted with emerald ash borer, oak wilt, pine decline, and other pests/diseases that are leaving massive amounts of tinder. The next drought is going to be fire season.

Between the smoke and the pollen, I'm living on antihistamines, steroids, eye drops, and asthma medications, staying indoors with the air purifier running, and spending more on health care than I can really afford.

4. Agricultural impacts. I'm acquainted with a bunch of farmers in the area. For the second year in a row, the tart cherry crop got hit with a late frost during a too-early flowering due to erratic warming. Another 80% loss, with no economic relief in sight due to the Tangerine Tyrant's hate-on for states that voted against him. The farmers are tearing out tree crops and selling off their farms for more McMansion developments.

The local farmers markets have had thinner and poorer quality selections, and grocery stores regularly run out of a few produce items. [The Cyclospora outbreak has had an impact as well, but it's uncertain how much this was fostered by climate change.]

5. Real estate prices. Housing costs are astronomical because everyone wants to move here. Dinky, shabby, hundred-year old cottages are selling for seven figures. The city is building rental housing as fast as possible and restricting AirBnB-type arrangements, but basic one-bedroom apartments average $1,800/month. We have a very large population of homeless people for a city this size, and insufficient shelter resources.

6. I've pretty much given up on the prospect of recreational international travel. Flying is the best practical travel option where I am - major cities are at minimum a 4 - 5 hour drive. Aside from the carbon costs of flying, inflation, and the political situation, erratic weather means higher travel risks. With work travel, I've already experienced major delays and a few harrowing landings due to unexpectedly icy runways and sudden downpours or high winds. Air turbulence in flight is worsening noticeably, too, as a direct result of climate impacts on atmospheric thermoclines.

Small, mixed positives... the wine grape growers here have had bumper crops of very high quality grapes, and are starting to plant more southerly varieties. Northern Michigan is now an internationally competitive red wine region. Shame that the market is oversaturated and people are drinking less.

I live in the southeastern US, and storms/flooding have noticeably intensified. Tornado Alley has also shifted from the plain states more toward the SE, and we've had several deadly tornadoes and a couple 500-year-level floods in the last 10 years. People associate Seattle with rain, but my city gets ~40% more rain than that. Seattle may have more days with rain, but when it rains here, it rains hard. Thunderstorms/torrential downpours/high speed winds/downed trees/flash flooding are a regular occurrence. Woke up to that this morning.

When my wife and I were shopping for a home a couple years ago after having kids and outgrowing our first home, flood risk was something we factored into the decision because there are large parts of our city built in flood plains. Now we live in a neighborhood that is the geographic high point of my city's downtown (which sits in a valley surrounded by mountains/ridges), and our house would survive even the worst pre-dam floods of the 1800s that leveled our city in the past.

It's also impacting our potential travel plans. Now that we have kids, we're on a school calendar schedule, and the summer is prime travel time. I'd love to go back to France since I'm francophone, see all the spots still on my bucket list, but I don't want to spend my vacation in 95+ degree temperatures in a place with no or poor AC. Now we're talking about a spring/fall break trip or maybe something right after school gets out before the heat waves are at their worst.

We decided to get solar panels a few years ago. We were replacing a slate roof with interlocking metal shingle and decided to get the solar panels installed at the same time. The new roof is cooler (I think) and the solar panels definitely insulate us against some of the variability in electricity pricing. I wish I could hook up LiFePo batteries for backup, but there's no way to do that without switching out the inverter, and that would need to be signed off on for interconnection to the rest of the grid, so no backup for now.

We were thinking about installing a 5-head mini-split heat pump for the house, but the cost was astronomical. I can run window units. We'll live.

We got a Volt a few years back and the power company offers time-of-use pricing if you have a plug in vehicle. It's nice with the solar panels, since our costs are low when we are charging the volt at night and, during the day, the solar panels are selling power back to the grid, so we buy very little electricity at peak rates. The car makes us a net consumer, but it also insulates us (partially) against volatility in the price of gasoline, which is mostly peace of mind right now, as, even at $4.00 per gallon, gas prices are far lower than they could be.

These things are all expensive and I wish the world was such that they seemed more like survivalist paranoia than well reasoned hedges against an increasingly insufficient infrastructure for a world in disequilibrium, but here we are.

Whether or not to have kids.

I'm currently childless in my 30s and the progression of my desire to have kids has almost directly tracked with how messed up I think their future will turn out. I fundamentally want kids, but I also want them to have a good life, and I'm really struggling to see a world where they won't have to deal with systemic droughts/floods/food shortages and the resultant political instability or conflicts. Even if we achieve net negative emissions in my lifetime.

I honestly don't understand how my friends and family can see what's happening and continue with their family plans. Are they less fearful about the effects? Are they less informed? Are they just more optimistic?

I'd love some perspective on this, bonus points if you're a new-ish parent.

I live in Portugal and it has had a huge impact.

I remember when I was a kid that summers were always fun to be outside and go to the beach and seldom did I feel temperatures were unbearable. Sure, it got hot, but not sweat coming out of every orifice hot.

Now, we often get days where there is a weather agency advisory not to go outside if possible due to the extreme heat and high UV intensity. Most houses are also extremely uncomfortable now because they were not built with such high temperatures in mind and it's hard to retrofit any kind of central AC in them (you'll be lucky if you can install a heat pump for one room without a lot of fuss. If you can't, portable AC/fans are your only resource). Folks without AC like me basically have to put our blinds down for most of the day so the house doesn't heat up as much during those bad days.

Winters are also getting more extreme weather events. We had a massive Winter storm that devastated a large region of the country that is still recovering to this day because our politicians are not equipped to handle this kind of adverse weather, as we've always been the country of "calm weather" before now.

And don't even get me started on the forest fires. Every year it seems to be getting worse. I live next to a forest too so it's double scary for me. I could lose my house because of a random spark somewhere.

To say I don't feel too positive about the future of the environment would be an understatement. I think it won't be long until we start having significant migration fluxes because of this type of weather.

SE United States

More severe storms, less rain, but when it does finally rain it floods.

We lose power more often and for longer periods due to storms, so we have had to prep for that.

We have to irrigate our garden now because we we way less rain than we used to

We are thinking about paving the drive way because the flooding washes the gravel away.

First world problems really

Mildly, I guess? I feel like I'm in this weird state of mind where I can't tell if winters are shorter/weaker because of global warming or if all of my childhood / teen memories of very snowy winters are just faulty memory and only remembering the "good" winters. Likewise with summer... has it always been this hot in the summer? I've never been an outdoorsy type, so I genuinely don't know. And have spring/fall always felt so brief?

To be clear I have no doubt that man-made climate change is real, but I can't tell if the impact of that is suddenly becoming greater, or if it's just marginally different and my memory is playing tricks on me.

but as far as impact goes, I don't feel like we've gone outside with the kids as much this summer. It's been in the mid-90s a bit too much for that.

I live in Texas near DFW (the metroplex, not the airport) and I’ve been here since 2010. So far the only thing climate changes has really truly done to this area is include some 120° days that we didn’t used to get. Today, it’s relatively moderate and only 87°F. Yesterday it was 101. When I moved here, we were in a severe drought. We still technically are in drought like conditions, but we also get rainfall constantly; it’s just that the ground can’t absorb it all. I’ve seen the banks of the Trinity River overflow more than I’ve seen the banks not overflowing.

When I first moved here, the Trinity was dry enough that the area constantly smelled like baking river bottom. I haven’t smelled that particular stench in quite some time.

For quite a while, I was considering moving out of here and heading up somewhere northeast like western New York where I have family, or Central Ohio, where I have friends. But seeing the Canadian wildfire smoke that is happening up there I’m not sure that there would be any point.

I was thinking that being near one of the Great Lakes might be great for if water becomes tight, but it looks like the entire planet is just gonna collapse all at once instead of in pieces like I assumed. Might as well stay in Texas, I’m accustomed to the shittiness I’ve been living with for almost two decades.

I'm trialing a lot of plants in my garden that, by rights, shouldn't be able to grow in my climate. Those trials are going alarmingly well. I just planted my most daring trial yet — a tropical indoor philodendron in a relatively unprotected position (east-facing, partially covered by a deciduous tree that is currently leafless).

It's mid-winter right now (equivalent to late January for those of you in the northern hemisphere), and my roses are still blooming and putting on new growth. On a more annoying note, I'm still having to watch for mosquitoes. We've had plenty of frosts, but no proper killing frosts yet, and I'm starting to wonder if we will this year.

We haven't had a single snow day here since early 2020, even though we had multiple snow days per year every year before that.

It's probably my dumb brain, but I've been obsessing over how to ensure that the next place I live will be less impactful than average, and resilient against wildfires. City living has been killing me, but since they're efficient at delivering services, I've put a bunch of thought into how to reduce the impact building outside of one has. E.g. keeping embodied energy down, trying to run the potable water system off of harvested rainwater, ensuring that my transport needs are met without hauling a car around, etc.

I don't think I'll ever leave this general area, unless I'm forced out for economic reasons. Doesn't seem right to flee the consequences of humanity's actions (although that's a personal conviction, and not something I expect others to follow); I'd rather stick around and help as much as possible, instead of bailing out when the going gets rough.

Not very much. Probably less likely to live in the bay area than otherwise because it was already always on fire during fall while I was there. Otherwise, I won't travel to central or southern europe during summer months anymore - that level of heat without AC is just miserable.

I've moving internationally specifically to escape the 'new normal' of my country. It isn't just the rising temperature and prices, it's the secondary effects this instability has had, and will continue to have, on every aspect of society. Every government is rushing to grab as much power as possible in order to make sure when shit hits the fan further their positions won't be under threat. So all while the world catches on fire and food and water get less and less stable each year, we also have to deal with the surveillance state, the technofascist oligarchy, the degradation of human rights, mass disinformation spread on the internet by bad actors, rewriting of history, hyper-acceleration of CO2 emissions in the name of profit, and more. But at least we'll have a million fucking datacentres that are apparently meant to create value... Somewhere, I guess, to someone.

Opted out of my pension too because I'm never going to retire in this life and I may as well spend the money now while there are still nice things to buy. The long-term plan is to keep hopping countries, trending more and more north, until the dystopia is truly inescapable.

Not at all really. Though me and my partner have a dream of retiring early in Europe, we won't be picking a place in the very south of Europe as it's already hot enough and will only be getting hotter (Except in the case of Jet Stream collapse which I don't see happening in our lives). Serious climate change is something the current generation of children and their children are going to have to face, not so much the adults of today.

It's definitely affected how I think about places to move to. The place I'm living now feels a bit more moderate over the past five years but maybe that's just because I've grown used to the weather.

Mostly by making me worried about the future and flying less which has been both frustrating and interesting as me and my family loves to travel.

Currently also by the wildfires in France causing our train back home to be cancelled and "forcing us" to fly instead ironically enough. it makes us a bit inconvenienced and we lose a bit of vacation money, but I feel very bad for the people living in the burning areas who are obviously affected much worse.