Science Sources: Detection and Attribution

Climate Signals tracks detection and attribution studies in real time. Below is an updating database of studies that find the fingerprint of human-caused climate change on observed trends and events. The database is limited to studies of local significance in the United States and studies of global significance. For a broader database of peer-reviewed studies and organizational reports on climate change trends, please see all Science Sources.

Search or browse our collection of detection and attribution studies below, or learn more about detection and attribution studies.

Title Source Date Author(s)
Increasingly frequent wildfires linked to human-caused climate change, UCLA-led study finds Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences Yizhou Zhuang, Alex Hall, Benjamin Santer, and Robert Dickinson
Recent increases in tropical cyclone precipitation extremes over the US east coast Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences Justin T. Maxwell, Joshua C. Bregy, Scott M. Robeson, Paul A. Knapp, Peter T. Soulé, and Valerie Trouet
Global urban population exposure to extreme heat Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences Cascade Tuholske, Kelly Caylor, Chris Funk, Andrew Verdin, Stuart Sweeney, Kathryn Grace, Pete Peterson, and Tom Evans
Marine heatwaves exacerbate climate change impacts for fisheries in the northeast Pacific Scientific Reports William W. L. Cheung & Thomas L. Frölicher
Increased drought severity tracks warming in the United States’ largest river basin Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences Justin Martin, Gregory Pederson, Connie Woodhouse, Edward Cook, Gregory McCabe, Kevin Anchukaitis, Erika Wise, Patrick Erger, Larry Dolan, Marketa McGuire, Subhrendu Gangopadhyay, Katherine Chase, Jeremy Littell, Stephen Gray, Scott St. George et al.
Human influence on joint changes in temperature, rainfall and continental aridity Nature Climate Change Céline J. W. Bonfils, Benjamin D. Santer, John C. Fyfe, Kate Marvel, Thomas J. Phillips & Susan R. H. Zimmerman
Anthropogenic climate change is worsening North American pollen seasons Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences William R. L. Anderegg, John T. Abatzoglou, Leander D. L. Anderegg, Leonard Bielory, Patrick L. Kinney, and Lewis Ziska
Anthropogenic climate change and heat effects on health International Journal of Climatology Nikolaos Christidis, Dann Mitchell, Peter A. Stott
Increasing trends in regional heatwaves Nature Communications S. E. Perkins-Kirkpatrick, S. C. Lewis
Global increase in major tropical cyclone exceedance probability over the past four decades Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences James P. Kossin, Kenneth R. Knapp, Timothy L. Olander, Christopher S. Velden
Detected climatic change in global distribution of tropical cyclones Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences Hiroyuki Murakami, Thomas L. Delworth, William F. Cooke, Ming Zhao, Baoqiang Xiang, Pang-Chi Hsu
The economic costs of Hurricane Harvey attributable to climate change Climatic Change David J. Frame, Michael F. Wehner, Ilan Noy, Suzanne M. Rosier
Colorado River flow dwindles as warming-driven loss of reflective snow energizes evaporation Science P. C. D. Milly, K. A. Dunne
Climate of the weakly-forced yet high-impact convective storms throughout the Ohio River Valley and Mid-Atlantic United States Climate Dynamics Binod Pokharel, S.-Y. Simon Wang, Jonathan Meyer, Robert Gillies, Yen-Heng Lin
Record-Setting Ocean Warmth Continued in 2019 Advances in Atmospheric Sciences Lijing Chengm, John Abraham, Jiang Zhu, Kevin E. Trenberth, John Fasullo,Tim Boyer, Ricardo Locarnini, Bin Zhang, Fujiang Yu, Liying Wan, Xingrong Chen, Xiangzhou Song, Yulong Liu, and Michael E. Mann
Forecasted attribution of the human influence on Hurricane Florence Science Advances K. A. Reed, A. M. Stansfield, M. F. Wehner, C. M. Zarzycki
Climate change now detectable from any single day of weather at global scale Nature Climate Change Sebastian Sippel, Nicolai Meinshausen, Erich M. Fischer, Enikő Székely, Reto Knutti
EEE 2018: Anthropogenic Impacts on the Exceptional Precipitation of 2018 in the Mid-Atlantic United States Bulletin of the American Meteorological Society Winter, J. H., Huang, H., Osterberg, E. C., and Mankin, J. S.
EEE 2018: Quantifying Human-Induced Temperature Impacts on the 2018 United States Four Corners Hydrologic and Agro-Pastoral Drought Bulletin of the American Meteorological Society Williams, E., Funk, C., Shukla, S., and McEvoy, D.
EEE 2018: Extreme Hail Storms and Climate Change: Foretelling the Future In Tiny, Turbulent Crystal Balls? Bulletin of the American Meteorological Society Kelly Mahoney