Science Sources: Detection and Attribution

Climate Signals tracks detection and attribution studies in real time. Below is an updating database of studies that find the fingerprint of human-caused climate change on observed trends and events. The database is limited to studies of local significance in the United States and studies of global significance. For a broader database of peer-reviewed studies and organizational reports on climate change trends, please see all Science Sources.

Search or browse our collection of detection and attribution studies below, or learn more about detection and attribution studies.

Title Source Date Author(s)
Rapid attribution of the August 2016 flood-inducing extreme precipitation in south Louisiana to climate change World Weather Attribution, Hydrology and Earth Systems Science Karin van der Wiel, Sarah B. Kapnick, Geert Jan van Oldenborgh, Kirien Whan, Sjoukje Philip, Gabriel A. Vecchi, Roop K. Singh, Julie Arrighi, and Heidi Cullen
Attribution of extreme rainfall from Hurricane Harvey, August 2017 World Weather Attribution, Environmental Research Letters Geert Jan van Oldenborgh, Karin van der Wiel, Antonia Sebastian, Roop Singh, Julie Arrighi, Friederike Otto, Karsten Haustein, Sihan Li, Gabriel Vecchi and Heidi Cullen
Rapid attribution of the extreme rainfall in Texas from Tropical Storm Imelda World Weather Attribution Geert Jan van Oldenborgh, Karin van der Wiel, Sjoukje Philip & Sarah Kew
Record Hot Year, 2015 World Weather Attribution
U.S. Heat, February 2017 World Weather Attribution Geert Jan van Oldenborgh, Andrew King, Friederike Otto, Gabriel Vecchi, Claudia Tebaldi, and Heidi Cullen
Climate change made UK heatwave at least 10 times more likely World Weather Attribution M. Zachariah, R. Vautard, D. Schumacher, M. Vahlberg , D. Heinrich, E. Raju, L. Thalheimer, J. Arrighi, R. Singh, S. Li, J. Sun, G. Vecchi, et al
Trends in Weather Extremes World Weather Attribution Geert Jan van Oldenborgh
Unusually high temperatures at the North Pole, winter 2016 World Weather Attribution
Diagnosing conditional anthropogenic contributions to heavy Colorado rainfall in September 2013 Weather and Climate Extremes Pardeep Pall, Christina M. Patricola, Michael F. Wehner, Dáithí A. Stone, Christopher J. Paciorek, William D. Collins
Early 21st century anthropogenic changes in extremely hot days as simulated by the C20C+ detection and attribution multi-model ensemble Weather and Climate Extremes Michael Wehner, Dáithí Stone, Hideo Shiogama, Piotr Wolskic, Andrew Ciavarella, Nikolaos Christidis, Harinarayan Krishnana
Attribution analyses of temperature extremes using a set of 16 indices Weather and Climate Extremes Nikolaos Christidis and Peter A.Stott
Quantile-based bias correction and uncertainty quantification of extreme event attribution statements Weather and Climate Extremes Jeon, Paciorek, and Wehner
Drivers of 2016 record Arctic warmth assessed using climate simulations subjected to Factual and Counterfactual forcing Weather and Climate Extremes Lantao Sun, Dave Allured, Martin Hoerling, Lesley Smith, Judith Perlwitz, Don Murray, Jon Eischeid
Quantifying statistical uncertainty in the attribution of human influence on severe weather Weather and Climate Extremes Paciorek, Stone, and Wehner
Global and Regional Increase of Precipitation Extremes under Global Warming Water Resources Research Simon Michael Papalexiou and Alberto Montanari
The twenty‐first century Colorado River hot drought and implications for the future Water Resources Research Bradley Udall, Jonathan Overpeck
Synoptic and Climate Attributions of the December 2015 Extreme Flooding in Missouri, USA Water Boniface Fosu, Simon Wang, and Kathleen Pegion
The heatwave in North India and Pakistan in April-May 2022 UK Met Office Nikolaos Christidis
Quantifying anthropogenic influence on recent near-surface temperature change Surveys in Geophysics M. R. Allen, N. P. Gillett, J. A. Kettleborough, G. Hegerl, R. Schnur, P. A. Stott, G. Boer, C. Covey, T. L. Delworth, G. S. Jones, J. F. B. Mitchell, T. P. Barnett
Internal variability versus anthropogenic forcing on sea level and its components Surveys in Geophysics Marta Marcos, Ben Marzeion, Sönke Dangendorf, Aimée B. A. Slangen, Hindumathi Palanisamy, Luciana Fenoglio-Marc