LYRICS
A month in a day
Should it be this way?
Precipitation
Over-participation
When it rains
It pours
Bringing strain
Indoors
When it rains
Cats and dogs
Rain sustains
Creating bogs
Our folly usher
Is a gully-washer
Earth eraser
Climate chaser
Erosion explosion
The whole side
In landslide
Wildlife confusion
The knew norm
The old norm
Accrue harm
The new norm
- The-Norm-Part-I.mp3 (unplugged to conserve energy)
- The-Norm-Part-II.mp3
- The-Norm-Part-II-Instrumental.mp3
- The-Norm-LH-Casio-WK-3500.MID (Left Hand / also controlled Korg PS60)
- The-Norm-RH-Yamaha-PSR-740.MID (Right Hand / also controlled microKorg and miniNOVA vocorder)
Chords: A D A C E A / A E E A; Part II @ 180 Beats Per Minute
Instrumentation: Vocals (TC-Helicon VOICELIVE and MiniNova Vocorder), Ibanez Acoustic Guitar (AW54CE), Fender Jazz Bass (Boss Digital Delay), Keyboards (Korg PS60, Casio WK-3500, Yamaha PSR-740, MiniNova, MicroKorg)
ABOUT THE SONG
This song reflects on the phenomenon of extreme rain events and its implications:
“A month in a day, Should it be this way?” – The lyrics question the intensity and rapidity of rainfall, comparing the volume of rain to what is typically experienced over a much longer period.
“Precipitation, Over-participation” – Describes the excessive nature of the rainfall, suggesting that it exceeds what the environment can handle.
“When it rains, It pours, Bringing strain, Indoors” – Conveys the intensity of the rain, which causes stress and inconvenience, particularly when it leads to flooding and damage to indoor spaces.
“When it rains, Cats and dogs, Rain sustains, Creating bogs” – Uses the idiom “raining cats and dogs” metaphorically to emphasize heavy rain, which creates waterlogged areas and bogs due to the saturation of the ground.
“Our folly usher, Is a gully-washer, Earth eraser, Climate chaser” – Reflects on human actions contributing to the intensity of rain events, leading to erosion, loss of land, and exacerbation of climate change.
“Erosion explosion, The whole side, In landslide, Wildlife confusion” – Describes the destructive consequences of erosion and landslides triggered by heavy rainfall, impacting both the land and wildlife habitats.
“The new norm, The old norm, Accrue harm, The new norm” – Suggests that extreme rain events, once considered rare, are becoming more common due to climate change, leading to increased harm and disruption to ecosystems and communities.
Overall, the song conveys a sense of concern and reflection on the changing patterns of extreme rain events and their detrimental effects on the environment and society.
ABOUT THE SCIENCE
On March 23, 2024 (the day this song was written and recorded), Philadelphia experienced its wettest March day on record. The rain gauge at the airport recorded over 3 inches of rainfall, while parts of New Castle County, Delaware also received just over 3 inches. In some areas of Gloucester County and Camden County, New Jersey, rainfall exceeded 4 inches. The precipitation observed on that day was roughly equivalent to the typical rainfall for the entire month.
The increased frequency and intensity of extreme rain events have several significant impacts:
- Flooding: Heavy rainfall can overwhelm drainage systems and lead to flash floods, urban flooding, and riverine flooding. This flooding can damage infrastructure, homes, and businesses, disrupt transportation networks, and cause loss of life.
- Erosion: Intense rainfall can cause erosion of soil and sediment, leading to landslides, mudslides, and soil erosion. This can damage landscapes, disrupt ecosystems, and threaten communities located in vulnerable areas such as steep slopes and hillsides.
- Water Quality: Heavy rainfall can wash pollutants, sediment, and debris into water bodies, leading to decreased water quality. This can harm aquatic ecosystems, impact drinking water sources, and pose risks to human health.
- Agriculture: Excessive rainfall can saturate soil, leading to waterlogging and reduced crop yields. Flooded fields can damage crops, delay planting and harvesting, and increase the risk of crop diseases and pests.
- Infrastructure Damage: Extreme rainfall events can damage infrastructure such as roads, bridges, dams, and levees. This damage can disrupt essential services, increase maintenance costs, and compromise the safety and resilience of communities.
- Human Health: Heavy rainfall events can pose risks to human health, including the spread of waterborne diseases, the displacement of populations, and mental health impacts associated with flooding and property damage.
- Economic Costs: The impacts of extreme rainfall events can result in significant economic costs, including emergency response and recovery efforts, property damage, loss of productivity, and impacts on industries such as agriculture, tourism, and transportation.
Overall, the increased frequency and intensity of extreme rain events underscore the importance of climate adaptation measures, including improved infrastructure resilience, land-use planning, and disaster preparedness strategies, to mitigate the impacts of these events on communities and ecosystems.
In October of 2023 Sidd said, “Now I am thinking the violent rain will be a bigger problem before we die… still thinking it through. In the long run, ya, sea level rise will hit big. If you look at the history, it is episodic, and in the fast bits it can go up 3 feet every twenty years for five hundred years. But, the rain intensity is increasing faster today, and drainage cannot cope, whether in the city or out, culverts and such put in over the last hundred years cannot handle. So, I am paying a lot of attention to terrain and drainage far inland from the seacoast (like Ohio.) By drainage I don’t mean just human built. I mean that the natural streams and gullies and ravines have not evolved to a state that can handle the water volumes we see and the worse, larger volumes we will see. So expect huger erosion, steeper slopes to waterways, land collapses and such. Build out your drainage.”
Violent Rain
Multiple factors figure into the physics of violent rain. The starting point is the moisture content of air. The Earth is warming. Warm air can physically hold more water than cool air. The warmer the air the more water vapor the air can hold (i.e. relative humidity). The capacity doubles for every ten degree Celsius warming.
One physical result is more massive raindrops. The Momentum of Rain is p = mv (p = momentum, m = mass, v = velocity.) Part of the increasing momentum is transferred to the sides and upward increasing wind turbulence, as well as updrafts. Most of the momentum is transferred upon impact. You may notice the rain bouncing higher off the streets and sidewalks. Flowing rainwater will have both increased mass and velocity.
On the ground, concrete, asphalt, solar panels, roofs, plants, animals, houses, and infrastructure will be hit with greater momentum. In the air, the increasing mass of the rain will intensify wind turbulence. Professor Paul D. Williams of the University of Reading, UK, said, “Turbulence is chaotic (chaos theory). Turbulence is known famously as the hardest problem in physics.” In their study Evidence for Large Increases in Clear-Air Turbulence Over the Past Four Decades, Prof. Williams and his team found “Climate change has caused turbulence to double in the last 40 years” and is expected to double or triple again in the next decades.
Mass and velocity are parts of a larger equation that also includes density.The combination of these variables results in an increased intensity of the flow forces (i.e. flow dynamics). Wind and water flow forces scale as the square of velocity, so as flow speeds increase (say due to more intense heating or heavier rain) the damage scales as the square of the velocity. Look at drag physics and you will see that force is proportional to density times square of velocity (v^2).
So a twenty mile an hour wind exerts four times as much force as a ten mile an hour wind. And a forty mile an hour wind exerts sixteen times as much force as a ten mile an hour wind. A wind of fifty miles an hour exerts twenty five times and a wind of sixty miles an hour exerts thirty six times as much force as one of ten miles an hour. Then you have the density term. Water is about eight hundred times denser than air, so the force exerted by a ten mile an hour flow of water is eight hundred times that of a ten mile an hour wind. As flow velocities go up due to climate change, force and damage scale as square of the velocities. What is not clear is how much these velocities increase with climate change. But in a sense we are seeing this already as, for example, flood and sewage systems succumb and hillsides fall down, and so on.
Human-induced climate change is a dynamic component of an intricate and unordered system, as per chaos theory. This implies that global warming is accelerating exponentially in a complex manner. Over the period from 1992 to 2023, we have presented compelling evidence, proposed remedies to mitigate climate change, and amassed valuable information through the engagement of millions with this climate model. Your participation has been invaluable. The incontrovertible data underscores that human-induced climate change is rapidly deteriorating our habitat.
Our climate model / experiment employs chaos theory to comprehensively consider human impacts and projects a potential global average temperature increase of 9℃ above pre-industrial levels. Global warming is a consequence of elevated thermal energy in the climate system, which comprises various subsystems. Chaos theory underscores the intricate and nonlinear nature of dynamic systems. Human well-being is compromised above a 1.5-degree temperature rise, rendering much of the Earth uninhabitable. A 9-degree Celsius increase would bring the Earth close to a wet-bulb temperature incapable of sustaining human life.
What Can I Do? There are numerous actions you can take to contribute to saving the planet. Each person bears the responsibility to minimize pollution, discontinue the use of fossil fuels, reduce consumption, and foster a culture of love and care. The Butterfly Effect illustrates that a small change in one area can lead to significant alterations in conditions anywhere on the globe. Hence, the frequently heard statement that a fluttering butterfly in China can cause a hurricane in the Atlantic. Be a butterfly and affect the world.
Here is a list of additional actions you can take.