2018 was the fourth warmest year on record globally and the wettest year on record in Massachusetts. Michael Rawlins, 2015 PEP Fellow and associate director of the Climate System Research Center at UMass Amherst, says on a WAMC Northeat Public radio interview that in 5-10 years when the next El Nino happens, temperatures are likely to approach the threshold that we're trying to stay below to avoid the worst impacts of climate change. He says this is a wake-up call and we need to see a transition to renewable energy to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and stabilize the climate. He also says that the current rapid fluctuations in temperature are indication of "weather whiplash," an expected phenomenon as the climate warms.