Explaining extreme events of 2016 from a climate perspective
Last year’s record global average temperatures, extreme heat over Asia, and unusually warm waters in the Bering Sea would not have been possible without human-caused climate change, according to a new report published in the Bulletin of the American Meteorological Society (BAMS). Explaining Extreme Events in 2016 from a Climate Perspective presents 27 peer-reviewed analyses of extreme weather across five continents and two oceans during 2016. It features the research of 116 scientists from 18 countries, including from the US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration in the United States of America. It looks at both historical observations and model simulations to determine whether and by how much climate change may have influenced particular extreme events. In the six years scientists have been producing this annual report, this is the first time they have found that extreme events could not have happened without human-caused warming of the climate through increases in greenhouse gases.