According to the FT ( July 10, 2012 ): "After the US baked in a searing heatwave and as Russia mourns the deaths of more than 100 flood victims, scientists have produced what they say is groundbreaking research linking climate change to recent extreme weather.
Global warming “significantly” increased the odds of some of last year’s most unusual weather, including the brutal Texas drought and the freakishly warm November in Britain, according to findings released Tuesday alongside the latest “state of the climate” report in the Bulletin of the American Meteorological Society."
The article goes on: “In the past you may have heard: ‘Well it isn’t possible to attribute an individual extreme weather event’, and the science really has moved on now. The way that it’s moved on is the realisation that we can look at how the odds of events have changed ... whether the likelihood of having an extreme weather event has increased or decreased,” said the UK Met Office’s Dr Peter Stott, co-editor of the new research.
Meanwhile at the end of the most bizzare summer season on record with extreme rain in Western Europe and extreme drought in Russia and North America, Nature reports "The ostensibly large number of recent extreme weather events has triggered intensive discussions, both in- and outside the scientific community, on whether they are related to global warming. Here, we review the evidence and argue that for some types of extreme — notably heatwaves, but also precipitation extremes — there is now strong evidence linking specific events or an increase in their numbers to the human influence on climate. For other types of extreme, such as storms, the available evidence is less conclusive, but based on observed trends and basic physical concepts it is nevertheless plausible to expect an increase."
The ongoing hurricaine season should be interesting....
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