The findings across three independent research papers show that human activity did increase the damage inflicted by Hurricane Harvey, said Michael Wehner, a researcher at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory. The earlier paper found that the odds of a Hurricane Harvey level of rainfall could increase to 1 in 100 by 2100, up from 1 in 2,000 at the beginning of the 21st century. The two papers released yesterday follow research published last month in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences that found that human activity could make another Hurricane Harvey far more likely. Researchers expected to find a 6 percent increase in Hurricane Harvey rainfall totals, but instead found that climate change increased those totals by at least 19 percent and as much as 38 percent. Researchers accounted for human influence on climate by estimating the present-day chances of Harvey's rainfall totals and then comparing them with 1950s greenhouse gas levels. The seven-day rainfall total from Harvey was as much as 40 percent higher than rainfall from a similar storm would have been decades ago, before human activity caused atmospheric carbon dioxide levels to spike, according to a study published yesterday in Geophysical Research Letters. ![]() In one area, Harris County, 51.89 inches of rain fell. Harvey made landfall near Corpus Christi in late August and stalled for days, dropping more than 30 inches of rain on southeast Texas. The research released yesterday shows that human-caused climate change will worsen storms. "It highlights the need to consider that our hazards are changing over time and that we should be considering those changes in the design of our infrastructure." "The takeaway from this paper is that Harvey was more intense because of today's climate, and storms like Harvey are more likely in today's climate," said Antonia Sebastian, a study co-author and a researcher with Rice University's Severe Storm Prediction, Education and Evacuation from Disasters Center. Hurricane Harvey's record rainfall was three times more likely than a storm from the early 1900s and 15 percent more intense as a result of climate change, a new study in Environmental Research Letters found. ![]() They pointed to a warmer atmosphere, which carries more water vapor to worsen rainstorms, as well as to higher ocean surface temperatures, which intensify hurricanes. population.īefore the storm, climate scientists speculated global warming could intensify climate change. Meanwhile, a new poll suggests that witnessing that type of damage and the suffering of those affected has also seemed to move public opinion slightly toward an acceptance of the risk that it poses to a large segment of the U.S. Human-caused climate change caused the storm to drop significantly more rain than storms would have before atmospheric carbon dioxide levels spiked from the consumption of fossil fuels, according to research published yesterday. Climate change made Hurricane Harvey more powerful and increased its deadly flooding, according to new research released as major storms may be driving more Americans to worry about global warming.
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