Blog note. Jesus indicated that ‘fearful sights’ (various natural disasters) would occur leading up to the time known as the Tribulation and Great Tribulation (a combined seven year period of great destruction on earth). Although these types of things have occurred in the past for centuries and thousands of years, they could be identified as the ‘season of the times’ due to the ferociousness of these events. They would be occurring in greater intensity, severity, frequency, size, duration, scope … just like the pains that a woman experiences in labor the farther along she is in the labor process. We are in the ‘season of the times’ that comes just before the seven (7) year Tribulation/Great Tribulation period
… And great earthquakes shall be in diverse places, and famines, and pestilences; and fearful sights and great signs shall there be from heaven. (Luke 21:11).
… And there shall be signs in the sun, and in the moon, and in the stars; and upon the earth distress of nations, with perplexity; the sea and the waves roaring; (Luke 21:25)
… Men’s hearts failing them for fear, and for looking after those things which are coming on the earth: for the powers of heaven shall be shaken; (Luke 21:26)
… This know also, that in the last days perilous times shall come. (2 Timothy 3:1)
Jesus is giving a series of prophecies about what to look for as the age of grace comes to a close. These verses are several of many such prophecies from throughout the Bible. 2017 was the worst year in recorded history for the intensity, frequency, severity, duration and occurrence of a large number of severe natural disasters worldwide. Earthquakes, volcanoes, hurricanes, typhoons, cyclones, torrential flooding, unprecedented wildfires in unusual places, devastating droughts, excessive/scorching heat setting records everywhere, record snowfalls in Europe and Russia. Snow in the Arabia. This list can go on. Most studied Eschatologists believe these ‘fearful sights’ and massive natural disasters are all part of the ‘CONVERGENCE’ of signs that this Biblical and prophetic age is closing. Most people who study prophecy are familiar with the routine reference(s) made that these things will be like a woman having labor pains, growing in intensity, frequency, size and duration.

The warming U.S. foretells the return of dreaded megadroughts. Another study going back 2,000 years ago.

Mashable•July 24, 2019

Megadroughts, persisting for decades at a time, parched the Southwestern U.S. centuries ago between 800 CE and 1600 CE. Then, the extreme droughts stopped.

But with temperatures today both exceeding the warm climes of past droughts and now relentlessly rising, the return of the Southwestern megadroughts is almost assured. New research, published Wednesday in the journal Science Advances, illustrates how a timely confluence of warm temperatures and changes in the ocean stoked a cluster of 14 potent Medieval-era megadroughts. 

Similar events could unfold again.

“This is what we would expect to happen in the future too,” said Nathan Steiger, an associate research scientist at the Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory of Columbia University and lead author of the study. 

Since 1901, average temperatures have increased across nearly the entire Southwest, in many places by over 2 degrees Fahrenheit. Record high temperatures have been repeatedly broken around different regions of the Southwest since 2012. Meanwhile, over the greater globe, 18 of the 19 warmest years on record have occurred since 2001.

To gauge how previous Southwestern megadroughts arose, Steiger and his team employed an advanced reconstruction of the past climate over the last 2,000 years, which uses evidence stored in tree rings, ancient glacial ice, lake sediments, coral reefs, and beyond.

During one of the peaks of crippling dryness around 800 years ago, the once flourishing Chaco Culture abandoned their great houses and intricate societies (though other factors may have played a role, too). Thousands of miles away, there was an increase in periods of colder than usual sea surface temperatures over the Pacific Ocean, known today as La Niña events. La Niña has the well-documented effect of pushing rain-bearing storms farther north, above the Southwest, which deprives the region of rain. To boot, a warming trend in Atlantic ocean waters also contributed to forcing storms north of this region. “It can then dry out the Southwest,” noted Steiger.

But that’s not all. Steiger also noted that a slight uptick in the sun’s activity warmed the region while a lack of volcanic activity (which reflects sunlight) allowed more heat to reach Earth. 

For some 800 years, then, the right conditions came together to foster and sustain a series of decades-long megadroughts. 

“[The researchers] are essentially listing the ingredients you need to have these megadroughts,” said Flavio Lehner, a climate scientist focused on hydroclimate at the National Center for Atmospheric Research. Lehner had no role in the research. 

“Their story makes a lot sense to me — it makes a compelling case,” he added. “But as often occurs in science, it’s probably not the last word,” Lehner said, noting that climate researchers don’t fully understand longer term La Niña fluctuations in the Pacific Ocean and the probabilities of another megadrought — or cluster of megadroughts — occurring.  But one thing is clear. The primary “ingredient” of warming and record-breaking temperatures will be present this century — if not well beyond (depending on how or if civilization slashes heat-trapping carbon emissions). “It’s by far the most certain part of the equation,” Lehner said