Attribution of climate extreme events

Tracking where the moisture came from in flood situations is always valuable to do, but is not done often enough.

Kevin Trenberth, lead author and scientist from the National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR)

• Suggests that it is more useful to regard the extreme circulation regime or weather event as being largely unaffected by climate change, and question whether known changes in the climate system's thermodynamic state affected the impact of the particular event
• Discusses 'snowmaggedon' in February 2010, superstorm Sandy in October 2012 and supertyphoon Haiyan in November 2013, and, in more detail, the Boulder floods of September 2013, all of which were influenced by high sea surface temperatures that had a discernible human component