The analysis was conducted by the World Weather Attribution group, which aims to quickly evaluate the possible role of climate change in extreme weather events. What’s more, the dams might not have been designed to withstand such an extreme rainfall in the first place, they say. To assess the role of climate change, researchers then combined observations of rainfall and climate models to determine if there had been changes in the likelihood and intensity of those maximum rainfalls. Even so, the attribution analysis’ approach is useful to those who must act on climate change, including deciding how to build infrastructure that’ll be in place for decades to come, he said. “For this reason, my belief is that these attribution studies actually underestimate the impact human-caused climate change is having on these events,” Mann said in an email.
