The sun has changed.
A theory is that the sun has cooled, and become smaller. So it is blocking less of the cosmic radiation coming towards us. (this is not the background radiation from the big bang that never happened.)
Imagine a stream of energy, that for the most part is taken up by the sun and causes it to glow. And now, the sun is not blocking as much of it. So we are seeing UV levels (and other ray levels) much higher, as in, almost never seen before levels on a continual basis.
And yes, full sun loving plants like zucchini and corn getting burnt last year.
I think someone is going to be needed to mass produce UV level detectors.