All extreme weather linked to climate change - Kevin Trenberth

Kevin Trenberth - a 'game changer'.

In the wake of major hurricanes, floods and heat waves, scientists are quick to say that no single weather event can be attributed to climate change until careful analysis draws that conclusion. Now, a new study argues that thinking is backwards, that all extreme weather has a link to climate change.

The default position has been holding science back in connecting weather and climate, concludes the authors of a peer-reviewed paper published Monday in Nature Climate Change.

This "could be a game changer in how these studies are done in [the] future," lead author Kevin Trenberth said in an email.

Trenberth is a senior scientist at the National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR), and one of three researchers behind the study.

The paper presents a new research technique that grew out of an idea Trenberth first proposed at a conference in 2010. It also provides scientists examples of how to apply the method, and challenges the conclusions of a 2014 paper that found no climate influence in the massive floods that swept Boulder, Colo., in 2013.

Read the Inside Climate News story - “Most Extreme Weather Has Climate Change Link, Study Says.”