Human Fuelled Global Warming Blamed for Extreme Hot and Rainy Weather

Making an argument for anthropogenic cause of climate change, a new study from Switzerland claims more than half of the daily weather hot events across the planet can be attributed to global warming perpetuated by humans.

The study published in the journal Nature argues that warming and precipitation extremes noticed in modern times in retrospect with those in pre-industrial times, can be attributed to anthropogenic activity. At present-day warming of 0.85 degree Celsius, around 18 percent of precipitation extremes over land are caused by warming, researchers wrote in the journal.

"Because extremes are rare by definition, a localized change in their frequency is statistically difficult to prove. But when all the measuring stations around the world are pooled, a clear picture emerges: there has been a global trend towards more frequent and intense hot extremes since the 1950s. In addition, significantly more stations have recorded increases than decreases in heavy precipitation," the study's lead author Erich Fischer of ETH Zurich, said in a statement.

The study also projected that for 2 degree Celsius warming, about three-quarters of daily hot extremes can and 40 percent of precipitation extremes can be attributed to human activity.

"A substantial proportion of all globally occurring hot extremes and heavy rainfall events can be attributed to warming primarily caused by humans. Since a heat or precipitation event does not have the same socio-economic impact everywhere in the world, it is necessary to combine our approach with regional information on exposure and vulnerability in order to carry out a comprehensive risk assessment," Fischer said.