Story thread · 2 reports / 2 sources

This fast-growing field is helping scientists pinpoint climate change’s impact on weather events

fastcompany.com · 14dShare

When a devastating heat wave , hurricane , flood or wildfire strikes , people often want to know: How much did human-caused climate change influence this event, if at all? For many years, scientists could answer that question only in general terms. They knew that human-caused climate change was increasing the frequency or intensity of some kinds of extreme weather , but determining its influence on a particular event was much more difficult. Today, researchers can provide a scientifically grounded answer that assesses whether climate change made a heat wave hotter , increased rainfall from a hurricane , or made a drought more severe . But the answers are not always straightforward, and they are not equally certain for every type of extreme event . Rapid attribution studies suggested that climate change made the heavy rainfall from Hurricane Helene’s remnants, which devastated mountain communities like Marshall, N.C., more likely than if the storm had occurred in a cooler climate. [Phot

First report: How do scientists know if climate change made a heat wave, extreme storm or wildfire worse? — phys.org, 15d