While scientists have long avoided attributing specific extreme weather events to changes in global climate, a recent report suggests that some of these events can be attributed to climate change with a high degree of confidence.
The report, from the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering and Medicine, marks the first time that scientists have tried to integrate all the information that might allow them to link weather to climate change, says retired Admiral David Titley, former chief meteorologist for the Navy and now a professor at Penn State University, who chaired the committee that conducted the study.

“We are not saying that we can attribute every specific event to climate change — far from it,” Titley says. “But we are also now not saying what many scientists, myself included, have said in years past, which is, ‘while the climate is changing, we really can’t say anything about any one event.’”