The fifth annual NOAA report of extreme weather events in 2014 aims to analyse whether human-induced activity was a significant cause of or contributor to the events. In its latest report, released on Wednesday, the agency said that while there were fewer than 100 “extreme” weather events, they had caused more damage and killed more people than any other natural disaster since
The fifth annual NOAA report of extreme weather events in 2014 aims to analyse whether human-induced activity was a significant cause of or contributor to the events. The report concluded that human-caused climate change increased the severity of a number of the major weather events (Californian wildfires, Argentine heatwave and East African drought, amongst others), but that it was not the root cause of all of them (cold winters in the US Mid-West, extreme rainfall in the UK, record year in Antarctic sea ice flows).