Extreme Weather and Climate Change

Strong scientific evidence links climate change with increasing heat waves, coastal flooding, and other extreme weather events

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Extreme Weather and Climate Change

  • What's the connection between global warming and extreme weather? When it comes to heat waves and coastal flooding, the scientific evidence is clear: Human-caused climate change is increasing these extreme weather events.
  • Other forms of severe weather are also closely linked to climate change, including a rise in extreme precipitation events in some regions and increasingly severe droughts in others. 
  • The effect of climate change on tornadoes and hurricanes is an active area of research. Scientific confidence with observed data is currently low, though the underlying mechanisms of climate change are expected to play a role.

The Science Behind the Infographic

The Extreme Weather & Climate Change infographic is based on an evaluation of the Special Report on Managing the Risks of Extreme Events and Disasters to Advance Climate Change Adaptation (SREX), the latest authoritative assessment (2012) by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC).