Rainy days got you down? Wake up to reality.

Science reflects realities that will remain long after political opinions are moot.

Pick a word: Relentless, constant, never-ending, incessant — and an annoying spoiler of summer vacation plans.

That’s the rainfall of the past seven days.

More than six inches of rain has fallen in parts of the region since Saturday, July 21. Compare to an average of 41 to 42 inches of rainfall per year, and the abnormality of the past week’s weather pattern is obvious.

The effects have been dramatic. (And that doesn’t include the toll on parents’ nerves enduring a rain-soaked family vacation in the Poconos or at the Jersey Shore.)

In central Pennsylvania, the torrential downpours resulted in flooding, closing roads and businesses, requiring rescues and evacuations, and shutting down both Hersheypark and Knoebels Amusement Park.

The Associated Press reported rainfall of up to 11 inches in five days in the Lancaster-Hershey-Harrisburg area.

“Will it ever stop?” was the most often-heard question last week around the watercooler or in the Wawa coffee line.

The rains were particularly vexing because they did not come in two days of hurricane or tropical storm force, as has been the case historically with flooding in Pennsylvania. Instead, downpours were followed by brief periods of clear or cloudy skies. And then another downpour.

“We’ve experienced what we call an atmospheric river, which is where the pattern sets up and creates a fire hose, bringing moisture from the Atlantic,” John Banghoff, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service in State College told The Associated Press.

And, like it or not, this pattern of extreme precipitation is going to continue.

One can argue whether humans are the cause of climate change, but this trend toward more extreme precipitation is indisputable.

Warmer air holds more water vapor. For each degree of atmospheric warming, the air’s capacity for water vapor goes up by about 4 percent, according to scientists.

The trend of severe wet weather is most pronounced in the Midwest and Northeast regions of the U.S., where extreme weather events have increased 71 percent since the 1950s.

Despite this evidence, some deny that the climate is changing and that its effects are becoming more pronounced.

Just last week in Glenside, Montgomery County, video of Pennsylvania gubernatorial candidate Scott Wagner telling a teenager that she’s young and naive about climate change went viral on the Internet.

Eighteen-year-old Rose Strauss was attending a town hall event when she asked Wagner about previously reported comments by him that climate change is the result of people’s body heat. Strauss then asked if that opinion has anything to do with money he’s taken from the fossil fuel industry.

Wagner replied, as captured on the video, “you’re 18 years old; you’re a little young and naive.” He said he appreciated her being there but asked “are we here to elect a governor or a scientist?”

The better question might be are we going to elect a governor who believes in science or not.

Wagner’s brushoff of the climate change question is just one example of politicians denying scientific realities starting with the president of our nation and reaching all the way down to a state governor’s race and beyond.

Science reflects realities that will remain long after political opinions are moot. Continuing to deny the realities of science to protect the status quo and failing to act on addressing the worldwide emissions that fuel those effects will doom the human race.

We’re dealing this week with a camel’s nose into our tent — a canceled day at the amusement park, a washed out driveway, a flooded basement — but the effects of catatrophic weather will become much more severe if we refuse to change our way of life and the habits that affect the atmosphere.

The rain of the past seven days leaves us with a clear message: We need to take climate change seriously.

We must work toward global solutions from the highest echelons of government to the decisions we make in our communities and households.

The adage that “you can’t do anything about the weather” isn’t true anymore.

We must acknowledge the scientific reality of climate change and work to address it.

That sure beats building an arc.