Weather extremes everywhere. Even in my back yard. Whither my daffodils!

"All politics is local," as famously stated by then-Speaker of the House Tip O'Neill.

I'll paraphrase Tip in a way I hope he wouldn't mind: Extreme weather is (now) local. I live in suburban Philadelphia, an area where we have occasional bits of extreme weather but, by no means, an anticipated hot spot for climate change.

That said, I just read Joe Romm's article in ClimateProgress about a new study that connects California's terrible drought with our recent frigid winter in the east -- and anthropogenic climate change. This is written by serious, reputable scientists, and endorsed by Pennsylvania's own climate scientist, Dr. Michael Mann.

Now to my own little bit of extreme weather: Tuesday afternoon, it was 67 degrees in my backyard and raining hard. It's April, so rain is expected. However, within eight short hours, we had frozen precipitation (sleet and snow) falling. It was 31 degrees when I got up yesterday morning, and my daffodils have taken a huge hit. A 36-degree drop in temperature in less than a day is not unheard of and doesn't, in and of itself, prove anthropogenic climate disruption.

But, for much of the country including Pennsylvania, this has been the winter to end all winters and it just won't end. Snow on Tax Day? Ridiculous.

And yes, I do realize I'm being whiny and narrowly focused to complain about my daffodils.

Much more seriously, I also realize that people around the world are dying due to climate disruptions. (And thanks to the excellent premiere episode of "Years of Living Dangerously" this past Sunday, I now see that the drought in Syria -- likely a result of climate change -- has played a huge role in the disastrous revolution in that country with so many thousands of lives lost to violence.)

Climate disruption is now smacking us in the face, every day, in so many ways -- from international headlines to the broken daffodils by my front door.

Memo to Washington and Harrisburg: It's time to wake up, smell the (mangled) flowers, and act.

Joy Bergey is PennFuture's federal policy director and is based in suburban Philadelphia.