CLIMATE CHANGE AND EXTREME WEATHER

Climate Change’s Evolving Role in Extreme Weather

Andrea Thompson, January 2, 2015 (Climate Central)

“…In 2014, researchers were able to make firm connections between climate change and some extreme weather events…The easiest parallel to draw between extreme weather and climate change has been, not surprisingly, heat…Multiple independent efforts, including some led by Climate Central, found that both Australia’s record hot year in 2013 and Europe’s expected heat record in 2014 were made many times more likely by climate change…It has been more than 100 years since the planet last had a record-cold month…Extremes in precipitation, from drought to downpours to blizzards, have proven tricky to tie to climate change. Drought in particular has complex causes…[A]t the other end of the spectrum, torrential downpours…are expected to happen more often as more water vapor accumulates in the warming atmosphere…

“The signal of climate change in extreme weather may continue to elude researchers for some time, as those signals could be too quiet — at least for now — for climate models and other tools to separate it from the loud cacophony of natural variability…A consensus has emerged to predict that warming will raise the intensity of hurricanes while lowering their overall numbers. Now, scientists have begun to focus on changes in where hurricanes occur and the damage they cause…Also in 2014, scientists began the first earnest looks into how climate change might be affecting smaller-scale phenomena like lightning and tornadoes, with clues that warming may bring more lightning in the U.S. and tornadoes may be clustering…Many of these efforts remain in their early stages and produce inconsistent findings, but scientists will forge ahead…” click here for more

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