Climate Attribution

Record-shattering March temperatures in Western North America virtually impossible without climate change

March 2026
Ben Clarke, Theodore Keeping, Mariam Zachariah, Clair Barnes, Spandita Mitra, Maja Vahlberg, Friederike Otto
World Weather Attribution
This study examines the heatwave that developed in the Southwestern USA during Spring 2026, identifying that its increased intensity and likelihood of occurrence was virtually impossible without climate change.Read More →

Exploring Spatial Heterogeneity in Synergistic Effects of Compound Climate Hazards: Extreme Heat and Wildfire Smoke on Cardiorespiratory Hospitalizations in California

February 2024
Chen Chen, Laura Schwarz, Noam Rosenthal, Miriam E. Marlier, Tarik Benmarhnia
Science Advances
In this peer-reviewed study, the authors used high-resolution satellite and monitoring data to quantify the way that compound exposures to extreme heat and wildfire smoke in California (2006–2019) varied between ZIP codes.Read More →

Understanding and Attribution of Extreme Heat and Drought Events in 2022: Current Situation and Future Challenges

October 2023
Lixia Zhang, Xiaojing Yu, Tianjun Zhou, Wenxia Zhang, Shuai Hu, Robin Clark
Advances in Atmospheric Sciences
This review article examines the role of climate change in notable events of the year in five major regions of the world: China’s Yangtze River region, western Europe, the western U.S., the Horn of Africa and central South America.Read More →

Decreasing fire season precipitation increased recent western U.S. forest wildfire activity

August 2023
Zachary Holden, Alan Swanson, Charles Luce, W. Jolly, Marco Maneta, Jared Oyler, Dyer Warren, Russell Parsons, and David Affleck
Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences
This peer-reviewed study uses climate modeling and statistical analysis of precipitation trends from 1979 to 2015 in the western United States to show that declines in summer precipitation contributed to the area of land burned by wildfires.Read More →

Increasing western wildfire impacts on snowpack in the western U.S.

September 2022
Stephanie Kampf, Daniel McGrath, Megan Sears, Steven Fassnacht, Leonie Kiewiet, and John Hammond
Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences
This peer-reviewed study uses satellite mapping of snow pack in the western United States and government wildfire area datasets to show that wildfires are decreasing snow pack and shifting towards areas with late snow melt.Read More →