Open AccessAttribution of Weather and Climate Events
Author(s) -
Friederike E. L. Otto
Publication year - 2017
Publication title -
annual review of environment and resources
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 4.01
H-Index - 115
eISSN - 1545-2050
pISSN - 1543-5938
DOI - 10.1146/annurev-environ-102016-060847
Subject(s) - climate change , attribution , extreme weather , hazard , stakeholder , climatology , weather prediction , environmental resource management , environmental science , geography , political science , meteorology , ecology , psychology , public relations , social psychology , biology , geology
Within the past decade, the attribution of extreme weather and climate events has emerged from a theoretical possibility into a subfield of climate science in its own right, providing scientific evidence on the role of anthropogenic climate change in individual extreme weather events, on a regular basis and using a range of approaches. Different approaches and thus different framings of the attribution question lead to very different assessments of the role of human-induced climate change. Although there is no right or wrong approach, the community is currently debating about the appropriate methodologies for addressing various stakeholder needs and scientific limitations. Tackling these limitations with more thorough model evaluation and meaningful bias corrections as well as going beyond the meteorological hazard and attributing the full impacts of extreme weather are the main challenges to face in the coming years.