I was raised in Tampa. Florida, which gets about a hundred thunderstorms a year, mostly in summer. For months at a time, an afternoon without lighting, rain, high winds and even hail was the exception.

I lived in Silicon Valley for 8 years. in Mountain View, CA, between Sunnyvale and Palo Alto, a short bike ride from NASA Ames Research Center, the SETI Institute and Stanford University. If I got an early start, I could pedal to all three on the same day and still get home before dark! During the entire time I lived there, I only recall one thunderstorm; three major earthquakes, but only one thunderstorm.

I think I can understand how unsettling the effects of AGW must be to the people of the high Arctic.