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)
Record-Setting Ocean Warmth Continued in 2019 Advances in Atmospheric Sciences Lijing Chengm, John Abraham, Jiang Zhu, Kevin E. Trenberth, John Fasullo,Tim Boyer, Ricardo Locarnini, Bin Zhang, Fujiang Yu, Liying Wan, Xingrong Chen, Xiangzhou Song, Yulong Liu, and Michael E. Mann
Record Temperature Streak Bears Anthropogenic Fingerprint Geophysical Research Letters Mann, Michael E., Miller, Sonya K., Rahmstorf, Stefan, Steinman, Byron A., Tingley, Martin
Record Hot Year, 2015 World Weather Attribution
Recent intense hurricane response to global climate change Climate Dynamics Greg Holland, Cindy L. Bruyère
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
Recent increase in catastrophic tropical cyclone flooding in coastal North Carolina, USA: Long-term observations suggest a regime shift Scientific Reports Hans W. Paerl, Nathan S. Hall, Alexandria G. Hounshell, Richard A. Luettich, Karen L. Rossignol, Christopher L. Osburn, Jerad Bales
Recent amplification of the North American winter temperature dipole Journal of Geophysical Research: Atmospheres Singh, Deepti, Swain, Daniel L., Mankin, Justin S., Horton, Daniel E., Thomas, Leif N., Rajaratnam, Bala, Diffenbaugh, Noah S.
Recent Advances and Remaining Uncertainties in Resolving Past and Future Climate Effects on Global Fire Activity Current Climate Change Reports A. Park Williams, John T. Abatzoglou
Rapid intensification of the emerging southwestern North American megadrought in 2020–2021 Nature Climate Change A. Park Williams, Benjamin I. Cook & Jason E. Smerdon
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
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
Quantile-based bias correction and uncertainty quantification of extreme event attribution statements Weather and Climate Extremes Jeon, Paciorek, and Wehner
Quantifying the influence of global warming on unprecedented extreme climate events Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences Noah S. Diffenbaugh, Deepti Singh, Justin S. Mankin, Daniel E. Horton, Daniel L. Swain, Danielle Touma, Allison Charland, Yunjie Liu, Matz Haugen, Michael Tsiang, Bala Rajaratnam
Quantifying statistical uncertainty in the attribution of human influence on severe weather Weather and Climate Extremes Paciorek, Stone, and Wehner
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
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
Quantifying anthropogenic and natural contributions to thermosteric sea level rise Geophysical Research Letters Marta Marcos, Angel Amores
Projected Atlantic hurricane surge threat from rising temperatures Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences Aslak Grinsted, John C. Moore, Svetlana Jevrejeva
Probabilistic estimates of recent changes in temperature: a multi-scale attribution analysis Climate Dynamics Nikolaos Christidis, Peter A. Stott, Francis W. Zwiers, Hideo Shiogama, Toru Nozawa
Physical Understanding of Human-Induced Changes in U.S. Hot Droughts Using Equilibrium Climate Simulations Journal of Climate Linyin Cheng