Warming world: Extreme weather worsening with climate

A Europe-wide drought as seen last summer would become a once-in-400 years event without climate change concludes a new study.

In the course of climate change, droughts have become more frequent in the recent past. Only last year, a drought of unprecedented proportions took hold of large parts of Europe.

Climate change makes the occurrence of weather events such as heatwaves and heavy rain more likely and more intense. This is the conclusion of numerous studies by the World Weather Attribution Initiative.

A past study already showed that a heat wave of up to 40 degrees as seen in England last year, was 10 times more likely and 1.5 to 3 degrees hotter than in a world without climate change.

Similarly extreme rainfall events will become more frequent and intense due to climate change. However, other human factors, such as building development near rivers, also play a role in the resulting devastating floods.

Extreme weather cannot be linked to climate change across the board. The number of tropical cyclones, for example, has not changed significantly.

Scientists can now attribute meaning to climate change in extreme weather events by running computer simulations.

First, the climate is simulated in the real world and then in a world without the additionally added greenhouse gases.

If an extreme weather event occurs less frequently in the second simulation and is also weaker, it can be concluded that climate change is an influence.