One of the most visible consequences of a warming world is an increase in the intensity and frequency of extreme weather events. Most have an associated human influence, too, that doesn’t seem as if it will diminish soon.We’ve all clung these last two weeks to the terrible images of storm surges that flooded coastal areas, of homes dragged claw-like off their footings by raging seas, of cars floating in streets, of boats torn ragged and thrust upward in haphazard piles.
— large, long-lasting thunderstorms that move in a relatively straight line — have hit North America this year, wreaking havoc, causing deaths, and cutting power.Climate change adaptation: discussed how “economic harms from extreme weather and climate events have become more commonplace due to increasing temperatures, sea levels, and economic development in areas vulnerable to these events.” The briefing acknowledged that these events are not part of a long pattern. To the contrary, “until this past decade, the country rarely experienced a year with more than a handful of billion-dollar weather and climate disasters.