Russian heat wave statistically linked to climate change
The forces behind weather are notoriously hard to pin down, and so climate scientists need to be careful and nuanced when they assess whether extreme weather is linked to climate change or just a freak weather event. Some events, like the unprecedented heat wave that killed 700 in Russia last summer, seem obviously linked to climate change. Now, by using a modeling approach originally based on casinos, scientists can model weather and predict the impact climate change had.
In the case of the Russian heat wave, researchers predict that climate change was 80% responsible. “With climate change, it’s going to happen five times more often than without,” said climatologist Stefan Rahmstorf. These findings further solidify what climate scientists have been warning for decades: the hotter the Earth gets, the more likely extreme weather is to occur.
