"Panel: Finding Climate Fingerprints In Wild Weather Is Valid"

"WASHINGTON — Climate science has progressed so much that experts can accurately detect global warming’s fingerprints on certain extreme weather events, such as a heat wave, according to a high-level scientific advisory panel.

For years scientists have given almost a rote response to the question of whether an instance of weird weather was from global warming, insisting that they can’t attribute any single event to climate change. But “the science has advanced to the point that this is no longer true as an unqualified blanket statement,” the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering and Medicine reported.

Starting in 2004, dozens of complex peer-reviewed studies found the odds of some extreme events — but by no means all — were goosed by man-made climate change. This new field of finding global warming fingerprints is scientifically valid, the academies said in a 163-page report released Friday. The private non-profit has advised the government on complex, science-oriented issues since the days of President Abraham Lincoln."

Seth Borenstein reports for the Associated Press March 13, 2016.

SEE ALSO:

"Climate Change Link To Extreme Weather Easier To Gauge - U.S. Report" (Reuters)

"Some Extreme Weather Now Reliably Linked to Climate Change" (InsideClimate News)