We have already created extreme extreme weather

Hurricane Michael, October 9, 2018. Source: NOAA

The Human Fingerprints on Extreme Weather

 

"Climate change is already taking a massive toll, and it’s only going to get worse."

"Hurricane Michael broke records Wednesday, when it became the most powerful cyclone ever recorded to make landfall along the Florida Panhandle. Abnormally warm waters fueled winds up to 155 miles per hour, which laid waste to homes and businesses caught in the storm’s path. As multiple outlets noted, climate change likely fueled the record-breaking wind speeds. That fact is notable given that both reporters and researchers have historically been reticent to link any one storm to climate change.

Five or ten years ago, if you asked a scientist how climate change figured into a particular hurricane, she would demur, saying that it was impossible to blame any single event on the overall warming trend. Those days are over. In the last decade, scientists have developed sophisticated tools for finding the human fingerprint on extreme weather. The emerging field of attribution research, as it’s known, investigates the role of climate change in specific events. A newly published report amassing more than 200 attribution studies makes clear that heat-trapping carbon pollution is already making the weather measurably more severe."

Read the Medium article

See also: Risks of 'domino effect' of tipping points greater...

#extremeweatherevents  #humancausedclimatechange  #hurricanemichael  #cyclones  #climatechange  #climateactionnow