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)
Satellites reveal hotspots of global river extent change Nature Communications
Changing intensity of hydroclimatic extreme events revealed by GRACE and GRACE-FO Nature Water
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
Climate change is increasing the risk of a California megaflood Science Advances Xingying Huang and Daniel L. Swain
The role of human-induced climate change in heavy rainfall events such as the one associated with Typhoon Hagibis Climatic Change Sihan Li & Friederike E. L. Otto
The heatwave in North India and Pakistan in April-May 2022 UK Met Office Nikolaos Christidis
The 2021 western North America heat wave among the most extreme events ever recorded globally Science Advances Vikki Thompson, Alan T. Kennedy-Asser, Emily Vosper, Y. T. Eunice Lo, Chris Huntingford, Oliver Andrews, Matthew Collins, Gabrielle C. Hegerland, and Dann Mitchell
Extreme Atlantic hurricane seasons made twice as likely by ocean warming Journal of Weather and Climate Dynamics Peter Pfleiderer , Shruti Nath, and Carl-Friedrich Schleussner
A Multidataset Assessment of Climatic Drivers and Uncertainties of Recent Trends in Evaporative Demand across the Continental United States Journal of Hydrometeorology Christine M. Albano, John T. Abatzoglou, Daniel J. McEvoy, Justin L. Huntington, Charles G. Morton, Michael D. Dettinger, and Thomas J. Ott
Severe Lake Heatwaves Attributable to Human-Induced Global Warming Geophysical Research Letters R. Iestyn Woolway, Clément Albergel, Thomas L. Frölicher, and Marjorie Perroud
Unraveling a century of global change impacts on winter bird distributions in the eastern United States Global Change Biology
Increasing heat-stress inequality in a warming climate Earth's Future Mohammad Reza Alizadeh, John T. Abatzoglou, Jan F. Adamowski, Jeffrey P. Prestemon, Bhaskar Chittoori, Ata Akbari Asanjan, Mojtaba Sadegh
Another Record: Ocean Warming Continues through 2021 despite La Niña Conditions Advances in Atmospheric Sciences Lijing Cheng, John Abraham, Kevin E. Trenberth, John Fasullo, Tim Boyer, Michael E. Mann, Jiang Zhu, Fan Wang, Ricardo Locarnini, Yuanlong Li, Bin Zhang, Zhetao Tan, Fujiang Yu, Liying Wan, Xingrong Chen, Xiangzhou Song, Yulong Liu, et al.
Quantifying contributions of natural variability and anthropogenic forcings on increased fire weather risk over the western United States Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences Yizhou Zhuang, Rong Fu, Benjamin D. Santer, Robert E. Dickinson, and Alex Hall
Global Temperatures Over Last 24,000 Years Show Today's Warming 'Unprecedented' Nature Matthew Osman, Jessica Tierney, Jonathan King, Jiang Zhu, Robert Tardif, Gregory J. Hakim, and Christopher J. Poulsen
Increasingly frequent wildfires linked to human-caused climate change, UCLA-led study finds Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences Yizhou Zhuang, Alex Hall, Benjamin Santer, and Robert Dickinson
Recent increases in tropical cyclone precipitation extremes over the US east coast Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences Justin T. Maxwell, Joshua C. Bregy, Scott M. Robeson, Paul A. Knapp, Peter T. Soulé, and Valerie Trouet
Global urban population exposure to extreme heat Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences Cascade Tuholske, Kelly Caylor, Chris Funk, Andrew Verdin, Stuart Sweeney, Kathryn Grace, Pete Peterson, and Tom Evans
Marine heatwaves exacerbate climate change impacts for fisheries in the northeast Pacific Scientific Reports William W. L. Cheung & Thomas L. Frölicher
Increased drought severity tracks warming in the United States’ largest river basin Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences Justin Martin, Gregory Pederson, Connie Woodhouse, Edward Cook, Gregory McCabe, Kevin Anchukaitis, Erika Wise, Patrick Erger, Larry Dolan, Marketa McGuire, Subhrendu Gangopadhyay, Katherine Chase, Jeremy Littell, Stephen Gray, Scott St. George et al.