Global Warming Linked to Freak Weather Nicholas Edmondson - IBTimes
go to original July 11, 2012

Northern Mexico has been hit with a record drought, which is ravaging its beef herds, with more than 350,000 cows having died. (Reuters)

Global warming is having a marked effect on weather patterns across the country, according to new findings on the implications of climate change.

Groundbreaking research released in the American Meteorological Society's latest State of the Climate report concludes that global warming "significantly" increased the odds of freak weather, such as flash floods in Russia, which claimed more than 170 lives.

The peer-reviewed research believes there is a causal link between global warming and some of the extreme temperatures in the US and western Europe.

However, the authors of the research could not definitively show a link with certain disasters, including the 2011 Bangkok floods and the UK summer washout.

Peter Stott of the UK's Met Office and co-editor of the research said that researchers were "not necessarily seeing a clear human influence on every single event we're looking at".

"[The report] is groundbreaking in the sense that we're applying attribution science to recent extreme weather events," he said.

Experts in Mexico believe there is little doubt that climate change has caused a drought that has seen no rainfall in the country's north, decimating the beef trade.

President of the El Sauz Farmer's Association told The Independent: "Water is the state's No 1 problem. We are facing a catastrophic situation."

The UK is suffering from the opposite problem, with new rainfall records being set in the months of April and June.

Researchers in the UK and US claim that the increase in rainfall is caused by the melting of icebergs in the Arctic Ocean. As the ice melts, cold air is forced south and sets off a chain of extreme weather conditions.

Although researchers cannot easily find causal links, Stott claimed recent research was evidence that "science has moved on".

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