Bulletin of the American Meteorological Society

American Meteorological Society

Published date September 1, 2013

Explaining Extreme Events of 2012 from a Climate Perspective

  •  Examines the causes of 12 extreme events that occurred on five continents and in the Arctic during 2012
  • Shows that the effects of natural weather and climate fluctuations played a key role in the intensity and evolution of the 2012 extreme events
  • Analyses for some events revealed compelling evidence that human-caused climate change, through the emission of heat-trapping gases, also contributed to the extreme event
  • Finds climate-change related increases in sea level have nearly doubled today’s annual probability of a Sandy-level flood recurrence as compared to 1950