Wooden crosses in honor of those who lost their lives during the Camp Fire in Paradise, California.

Twelve straight nights of raging storms have produced 365 reported tornadoes across 22 states. Where the total for May averages 276, this year has seen that number almost doubled … and May isn’t over yet. CNN had a word for this. They called it “unprecedented.”

Those storms have brought record floods to Oklahoma and Texas, but those aren’t the first states to suffer floods this year. The Midwest, from Minnesota to Missouri, has spent much of the spring fighting other record floods after parts of the Mississippi Basin received more than 200% of the normal levels of rain and snow and a “bomb cyclone” exploded like a cold hurricane over the center of the nation. Some of those towns that went under back in March or April are still underwater today. Time had a word for it. They said it was “unprecedented.”

The fire season that began last spring in California had already earned an “unprecedented” from The New York Times by August after the normal seasons of rain and drought in the West seemed almost flipped … but the 600,000 acres that had been burned by summer was far from the end. Record-setting fires continued through the fall and into the start of winter.

While those fires were burning in the west, the opposite coast suffered a hurricane season in which Hurricane Florence dumped unprecedented rainfall. And Hurricane Michael plowed into the Florida panhandle with unprecedented strength, destroying homes and doing billions of dollars of damage to a military base.

That’s just one year. It’s not counting the massive damage of the 2017 hurricane season. Or all the “unprecedented” storms, floods, and fires that year delivered. Why does it seem that every single day brings a forecast with the word “record” or “unprecedented?” Because it really is unorcedented.

Because this is the climate crisis. It’s not something that will happen at some unspecified time in the future. It’s not something that will happen to unfortunate people somewhere far away. The climate crisis is here and now. It’s driving tornadoes through American towns. Drowning American farms under floods. Battering American coasts with storms. And destroying the homes, businesses, and lives of Americans across the country.