Global Warming and the Science of Extreme Weather

Insurance industry research anticipates extreme weather events will become routine. Scientists who once hesitated to link extreme droughts, storms or other weather events with human activity, including burning fossil fuels, now report evidence of connections, reports John Carey in Scientific American and the second article of a three-part series. Carey points out that basic physics is behind changing weather. The planet has warmed by 1 degree Celsius since the preindustrial period, and for every degree rise, moisture rises by 7 percent, explains one UK climate official. Weather patterns confirm that results predicted by climate-change models developed years ago are accurate or even conservative in their estimates. An onslaught of severe weather events will carry a heavy economic toll, and regions around the globe must anticipate new weather patterns. – YaleGlobal