 Sure, tent fate. We often do. A city that ignores growing water demands despite rapid development. An isolated one-road mountain community surrounded by brush and dense pine forests. A community turning a blind eye to potential flood impacts. Go ahead, be tough, laugh hardly at nature. Hahahahaha. Heh heh. Oh. Well, we know we can't control nature. We can control choices about our built environment. For example, with the next drought, we know water shortages will be an issue. That lovely mountain community could very well go up in smoke. And that city with no flood planning is sure to see roads, homes, and infrastructure wash away and ruin when a year's worth of rain falls in one day. There is another way. We can plan ahead so that when things do go wrong, it's not the end of the world. Engineers use the term graceful failure. It's a way of designing systems, so if that part of that system should fail, the core functions continue, possibly at a reduced level rather than fail completely in an extreme event. They fail instead gracefully. This isn't new. Just about all of our electronics are designed for graceful failure, so that when your funny monkey candy extreme app crashes on your phone, you can still take pictures and make calls. You may ask, isn't good failure still failure? The reality is that resisting failure and designing for its complete absence is a pipe dream. Smart communities decide together what functionality to preserve and the degree of risk to accept. They rebound stronger, recover faster, and make adjustments as changing conditions dictate. This is the philosophy behind NCAR's Engineering for Climate Extremes Partnership, or ECEP. Experts there collaborate with decision makers in academia, government, business, and local communities to figure out ways to use and advance cutting edge science, engineering, and technology to anticipate and assess the best options for managing risks from extreme weather and climate events. Extreme events are sadly the rule rather than the exception throughout the world. Lest we forget Haiyan, Sandy, Katrina, all those devastating floods, the Amazon fires, and severe droughts in Central America, those massive New England blizzards and record snow totals, the heat waves across Europe, Russia, or perhaps in a region you call your own. And surprise, behind door number one holding Earth's future, you'll find projected increases in extreme events that's inevitable too due to climate change and growing populations. Our advice, avoid tempting fate, prepare yourselves. To find out how, join us.