The difference between weather and climate is such an important distinction to make when discussing climate change because extreme weather events can be mistaken as directly related to climate change. In this NY Times article, author John Schwartz explains 32 studies published in 2015 examining 28 extreme weather events from 2014. The studies appear in The Bulletin of the American Meteorological Society and found a 50-5- split on whether climate change is to blame for the likelihood or intensity of these events. Increased intensity of heat waves were found to be linked to “human- caused climate change” in these studies, as did increased number of hurricanes hitting Hawaii in 2014. Scientists found that the Syrian drought was made worse by lack of rainfall linked to climate change but make a great point in saying “[the findings] by no means a prevailing one-story-fits-all-events type of approach to this.”

In the second module, we learned that the spatial pattern of precipitation is complex and measuring the frequency of extreme events is a challenging problem. The module and the scientific findings in this study agree that there is no CLEAR sign that the amount of precipitation is increasing or that is directly linked to climate change, but there are instances as proven in these studies that are prolonged or intensified due to climate change.

As in module 2, natural variabilities such as El Nino have a lot to do with weather events especially hurricane formation. Penn State’s very own Michael Mann exerts that “the current level of warming (1.5 degrees Fahrenheit) around the globe has fundamentally influenced all meteorological events.” Although there were varying conclusions made by scientists in this study, Mann explains “the question is no longer whether there is an influence of climate change on extreme weather events, the debate is simply over the magnitude and extent of that influence.”

Not only is it interesting to learn about differing arguments about the impact of climate change on extreme weather events, but it is defiantly cool to be reading a NY Times article that reports the workings of Professors/Scientists from Penn State. Pretty cool if you ask me.

Reference:

Schwartz, John. Scientists Study Links Between Climate Change and Extreme Weather. New York Times, 5 November 2015. http://www.nytimes.com/2015/11/06/science/climate-change-extreme-weather-global-warming.html?_r=0