Climate Change & Extreme Weather

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NASSAU, BAHAMAS – It’s no secret that weather around the world is changing. Higher temperatures, stronger storms, extreme conditions.

There is mounting evidence that human activity and climate change are linked to extreme weather, including heat waves, rain and flooding events.

A 2022 study mapping how climate change affects extreme weather around the world, found that 71-percent of 504 extreme weather events and trends were made “more likely or more severe” by human-caused climate change.

What does that mean?

Peter Stott, a Climate Scientist, and professor at the University of Exeter says global temperatures paint a picture.

“What may seem like a relatively gradual increase in global temperature is going to have a very substantial impact on extremes,” Stott explains.

“What it is doing — and we’re seeing this more and more frequently, is it’s making previously unprecedented extremes much more likely, it’s making the chances of record breaking extremes much more likely.”

The study also includes hurricane Dorian’s extreme rainfall over The Bahamas in 2019, with the Bulletin of the American Meteorological Society noting human-caused climate change increased the likelihood of hurricane Dorian’s extreme three-hour rainfall amounts and total accumulated rainfall by 8 – 18 percent and 5 – 10 percent respectively.

“It’s making those heatwaves more intense, so it’s really adding to the fuel if you like of those weather events when they’re forming, which is part of the natural processes of our climate, when they are forming, it’s making them much more substantial and much more intense and therefore the impacts we’re seeing are much, much greater,” Stott adds.