The Atlantic

Climate Change Is Causing More Sweltering Summer Days

A new study aims to answer: When do we know if bad weather can be blamed on global warming?
Source: Edward Munoz / Reuters

This past winter was an exceptionally strange one across North America. Rain deluged California, as unseasonable warmth fanned across the Midwest and Eastern seaboard. In New York, sales of salt and snow shovels plunged; in Washington, some of the famous cherry trees bloomed too early and died.

When the weather gets weird, many people now think of climate change. And nearly as many people know, too, that it’s hopeless to try to figure out if it’s to blame. For decades, journalists have repeated that weather and climate are different—weather deals in specifics

You’re reading a preview, subscribe to read more.

More from The Atlantic

The Atlantic6 min read
Florida’s Experiment With Measles
The state of Florida is trying out a new approach to measles control: No one will be forced to not get sick. Joseph Ladapo, the state’s top health official, announced this week that the six cases of the disease reported among students at an elementar
The Atlantic6 min read
There’s Only One Way to Fix Air Pollution Now
It feels like a sin against the sanctitude of being alive to put a dollar value on one year of a human life. A year spent living instead of dead is obviously priceless, beyond the measure of something so unprofound as money. But it gets a price tag i
The Atlantic8 min readAmerican Government
The Most Consequential Recent First Lady
This article was featured in the One Story to Read Today newsletter. Sign up for it here. The most consequential first lady of modern times was Melania Trump. I know, I know. We are supposed to believe it was Hillary Clinton, with her unbaked cookies

Related Books & Audiobooks