You mention, your senior years. Well you must be very old, if you can recall events, from the American war of independence.Just something I realized in my lifetime. If you look at the history of Europe and the U.S. over the past 300 years, there were no significant (reported) weather events on both sides of the Atlantic for Great Britain, France, Germany or the Eastern or Western U.S. The fleets of British, French and American ships crossing the Atlantic rarely reported storms at sea and to a greater extent, the British and French could not have been involved in the American Revolution or the Civil War had there been massive category three, four and five hurricanes bouncing around the Atlantic at that time. The revolutionary war could not have been fought with massive weather systems flying up and down the Atlantic coast, battering places like Atlanta, Washington DC, North and South Carolina's, Georgia and the Mississippi River area, with massive river flooding. The Colonials and the British never reported storms or massive river flooding during this time hampering the battles that took place. Later, during the Civil War, Both the North and South were not delayed or hampered in their battles by radical weather conditions during the spring, summer and fall months of each year. The American Indians of the North and Western U.S. during the western migration of settlers do not report sever weather or massive forest fires hampering their resistance efforts and the settlers of the western U.S., with their telegraphs and news papers were certainly capable of making such reports. So, my conclusion here is that our current state of global weather is a new thing, caused solely by the rapid industrialization of the planet since the late 1890's to today. The burning of fossil fuels, use of combustion engines, improper disposal of waste globally has caused the weather to change in my lifetime and for future generations. As a child, I did not hear of or experience anything like what is happening with the weather today. For me, it's like night and day for what I saw weather wise between my childhood and now in my senior years. Even if we could get the entire planet to cooperate in stopping the burning of fossil fuels and the use of combustion engines today, I don't think we can avoid the rise of sea levels, global warming, the melting of the ice caps or a change in global weather catastrophies to come.
I leave you with this cartoon. Unfortunately, it speaks the truth to the destiny of our species given what we have done to the planet to date.
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That said: There are a number of records, of Great storms, floods and other such events, throughout history. Humans tend to 'forget' sad and tragic events, they often remember the heroes from such events, but that is about it. Many, many shops (sorry, ships) have been lost, crossing the Atlantic and they tended to turn away from such conditions, in those days. They did not have satellites to show them, how big, or where the said storm, was heading. Yes they spoke of them, sent news etc. etc. Check Lloyds of London records of the time. Lots and lots of ship wreaks there. Something else to consider. if a storm, or flood, kills everyone. At the time, or due to the after effects, then who is there, to speak of, what happened.
Not to take anything away, from what you propose. of humans influence/effect, on the current climate. Just to point out, storms and extreme weather conditions; are not a new thing.