Reporting extreme weather and climate change

The document explains 'extreme event attribution'—the scientific method used to determine if and how much climate change influenced a specific weather event. It warns journalists against three common mistakes: ignoring climate change, attributing events without evidence, or citing it as the sole cause. The guide provides detailed analysis for heatwaves, floods, tropical cyclones, heavy snow, droughts, and fires, noting that while heatwaves are unilaterally linked to global warming, other events like droughts and snowfall have more complex, region-specific relationships with climate change. It emphasizes that disasters result from both extreme weather and societal vulnerability.

• Extreme event attribution uses climate models to simulate the modern world (with human influence) and a pre-industrial world (without human influence) to calculate how much more or less likely or intense a specific event has become due to global warming.
• There is an unequivocal link between human-caused climate change and the increase in average and extreme heat on every continent; every heatwave globally is now made stronger and more likely.
• Extreme rainfall has become more frequent and intense across most of the world due to climate change, particularly in Europe, most of Asia, central and eastern North America, and parts of South America, Africa, and Australia, though confidence varies by region.
• While the total number of tropical cyclones globally has not increased, climate change has increased the frequency of the most intense (Category 3-5) and destructive storms, as well as the amount of rainfall they produce.
• Extreme cold events have decreased in likelihood and intensity worldwide, although heavy snowfall remains difficult to attribute and its changes are uncertain, except for possible intensity increases in parts of East and North Asia, North America, and Greenland.
• Droughts are becoming more common and severe due to climate change only in specific regions, with high confidence for the Mediterranean, southern Africa, central and eastern Asia, southern Australia, and western North America.
• The likelihood of 'fire weather'—a combination of heat, drought, and wind—is increasing on every continent, with clear attributable increases in probability and burned area in southern Europe, northern Eurasia, the US, and Australia.
• Weather events only become disasters when combined with societal vulnerability, meaning social and economic status often determines the disproportionate impacts of an event.

APA

Clarke, B., & Otto, F. (n.d.). Reporting extreme weather and climate change. World Weather Attribution. https://www.worldweatherattribution.org/wp-content/uploads/ENG_WWA-Reporting-extreme-weather-and-climate-change.pdf

Chicago

Clarke, Ben, and Friederike Otto. Reporting extreme weather and climate change. World Weather Attribution, n.d. https://www.worldweatherattribution.org/wp-content/uploads/ENG_WWA-Reporting-extreme-weather-and-climate-change.pdf.

Wikipedia

{{cite report |last1=Clarke |first1=Ben |last2=Otto |first2=Friederike |title=Reporting extreme weather and climate change |publisher=World Weather Attribution |url=https://www.worldweatherattribution.org/wp-content/uploads/ENG_WWA-Reporting-extreme-weather-and-climate-change.pdf |access-date=23 October 2026 |via=Climate Insights Directory}}

BibTeX

@techreport{clarkendreporting, author = {Clarke, Ben and Otto, Friederike}, title = {{Reporting extreme weather and climate change}}, institution = {World Weather Attribution}, url = {https://www.worldweatherattribution.org/wp-content/uploads/ENG_WWA-Reporting-extreme-weather-and-climate-change.pdf}, urldate = {2026-10-23}, note = {Indexed by Climate Insights Directory} }