A climate scientist explains the forces behind the summer’s extreme downpours and dangerous heat waves, and why new locations will be at risk in the coming year.
At least 9 inches of rain across eastern Kentucky became floodwater that swept through neighborhoods in July 2022.
Leandro Lozada/AFP via Getty Images
Extreme downpours caught people off guard from Las Vegas to Kentucky in July 2022.
A tropical storm’s rain overwhelmed a dam in Thailand and caused widespread flooding in late September. It was just one of 2021’s disasters.
Chaiwat Subprasom/SOPA Images/LightRocket via Getty Images
While surface temperatures were about the 6th warmest on record in 2021, the upper oceans were at their hottest – and they’re a stronger indicator of global warming. A top climate scientist explains.
Residents had to be rescued as Hurricane Ida flooded coastal Louisiana in August 2021.
Patrick T. Fallon/AFP via Getty Images
A hurricane that wreaked havoc from Louisiana to New York City, the Texas freeze and devastating western wildfires topped NOAA’s list of billion-dollar disasters in 2021.
Wildfires that swept through Sequoia National Forest in California in September 2021 were so severe they killed ancient trees that had adapted to survive fires.
AP Photo/Noah Berger
US disasters in 2021 told a tale of two climate extremes. A climate scientist explains why wet areas are getting wetter and dry areas drier.
The effects of climate change are heightened in urban areas and impose a high financial burden to the municipalities.
THE CANADIAN PRESS/Nathan Denette
Shoreline communities are already faltering under the weight of billions of dollars in damages — and worrying that climate change will continue to make things even worse.
Six-year-old Makai'ryn Terrio, centre, cools off with his brothers as they play in water fountains in Montréal. The city had its hottest August on record.
The Canadian Press/Graham Hughes
Southern Québec is warming twice as rapidly as the rest of the world due to the progressive loss of snow cover. An average annual warming of 3 C to 6 C is expected by the end of the century.
Philadelphia’s Manayunk neighborhood was flooded by the remnants of Hurricane Ida.
AP Images/Matt Rourke
Evidence is mounting that, as the climate warms, the amount of rain falling in heavy storms is increasing, especially in the central and eastern US.
Climate change made the devastating flooding in Belgium, Germany and other European countries in July 2021 more likely.
Anthony Dehez/Belga/AFP via Getty Images
A new attribution study finds human-caused climate change made Europe’s July floods more likely. What about Tennessee’s flooding? An atmospheric scientist explains how scientists make the connection.
Academic research can shed light on crucial questions about what life on Earth will be like under the most plausible emissions scenarios. And a warning: the answers are confronting.
The Little Ice Age brought some bitter extremes.
Pieter Bruegel the Elder, 1565
Not every extreme weather event is caused by climate change, but heat waves that were once ridiculously improbable are showing up more often. Just ask Portland.
Hurricane Harvey dumped an unheard-of 60 inches of rain in parts of Texas in 2017.
AP Photo/David J. Phillip
Gavin D. Madakumbura, University of California, Los Angeles; Alex Hall, University of California, Los Angeles; Chad Thackeray, University of California, Los Angeles, and Jesse Norris, University of California, Los Angeles
Scientists used artificial neural networks to analyze precipitation records. They found evidence of human activities influencing extreme rainfall or snowfall around the world.
As the planet continues to warm, extreme weather events such as heatwaves and heavy rainfall are becoming more frequent, intense and longer, according to global weather data.
Ghana has at least one one major flood disaster every year.
chunya2009/Flickr
Engineering practice assumes that floods are randomly distributed but science suggests they are not. This raises questions about the reliability of flood infrastructure and management strategies.
Frost affected many crops across WA during September 2016.
WA Department of Primary Industry and Regional Development
We already know that climate change makes heatwaves hotter and longer. But a new series of research papers asks whether there is also a climate fingerprint on frosty spells and bouts of wet weather.