How much is climate change to blame for extreme weather?
Researchers use a variety of techniques for this work, called extreme event attribution
![extreme weather attribution slider](https://i0.wp.com/www.sciencenews.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/09/090924_mt_climateattribution_feat.png?fit=1030%2C580&ssl=1)
Heat waves are fairly easy to tie to climate change. It’s harder to tie climate change to heavy rainfall events, tornadoes and wildfires. More data and better models are needed.
By Maria Temming and Luke Groskin
This video was supported by funding from the Howard Hughes Medical Institute.
TRANSCRIPT
Maria Temming: In 2021, a historic heat wave baked the Pacific Northwest killing hundreds of people and fueling wildfires. Researchers later reported that human-caused climate change made this heat wave at least 150 times more likely.
But how do scientists figure out how much climate change is to blame for a specific weather event?
Researchers use a variety of techniques for this work, which is called extreme event attribution. One method compares the world we have today–which has warmed 1.2 degrees Celsius since the Industrial Revolution –with what the world would look like without climate change. Researchers estimate what that second world would look like based on historic trends in weather data and climate models.