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80% of Heat Records Worldwide Linked to Climate Change

Climate Nexus
Apr. 25, 2017 08:28AM EST Popular

Record-breaking extreme weather events all over the globe, including increased temperatures and rainfall, can be linked to human-made climate change, according to new research.

Most scientific research examines the links between climate change and specific weather events, but a first-of-its-kind study published Monday in the journal Proceedings of the Natural Academy of Sciences used a new framework to take a comprehensive look at climate measurements worldwide.

The study found that over 80 percent of heat records worldwide were linked to climate change, while climate change influenced 57 percent of driest-year records and 41 percent of five-day precipitation records.

"Our results suggest that the world isn't quite at the point where every record hot event has a detectable human fingerprint, but we are getting close," lead author Noah Diffenbaugh told USA Today.

For a deeper dive:

AP, Washington Post, USA Today, Climate Central, Mashable

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