State of the Science Fact Sheet: How Human-Caused Climate Change Affects Extreme Events

Extreme weather and climate events have significant impacts on society and ecosystems. Climate records show that several types of extreme events have changed over the past 50 to 100 years. Climate science strives to detect changes in weather and climate extremes, and to assess the extent to which human-caused climate change has influenced extreme events, including their frequency and intensity. Climate models are used to project future human-caused changes in extreme events.