For this first interactive exercise we will be look at Carbon Brief's ‘Attributing extreme weather to climate change’ interactive map. This map shows 405 extreme weather events across the globe for which scientists have carried out attribution studies on whether they are caused by humans or not. Extreme events are based on a location’s recorded weather history and defined as lying in the most unusual ten percent. The extreme events are listed each year from 2011 - 2020, and also pre-2011 which includes 38 events mostly taking place in the last 20 years, but also further back, such as the US "Dust-Bowl" heatwaves in the 1930s, and California's "Great Flood" event in 1862.

You may find it helpful to open the exercise in a separate window.

1. Go to 'Carbon Brief's ‘Attributing extreme weather to climate change' interactive map

2. Have a look at your country on the map, you can zoom in by double clicking or pressing the plus and minus buttons in the top-left corner. The different symbols show the type of extreme weather; for example, a heatwave, flood or drought. The colours indicate whether the attribution study found a link to human-caused climate change (red), no link (blue) or was inconclusive (grey).

3. What extreme events can you see, and how many of these were attributed to human induced climate change? Is it what you expected?

4. You can also filter the map by events, or by year the events occurred.

5. If you would like, you can read the text below the map to find out more.

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