World Weather Attribution

World Weather Attribution

Subject :Environment

Section: Environmental Organisation

World Weather Attribution

• World Weather Attribution (WWA) is an international collaboration of climate scientists who conduct rapid assessments of extreme weather events to determine the extent to which climate change may have contributed to them.
• The World Weather Attribution (WWA) initiative, a collaboration between climate scientists at Imperial College London in the UK, KNMI in the Netherlands, IPSL/LSCE in France, Princeton University and NCAR in the US, ETH Zurich in Switzerland, IIT Delhi in India and climate impact specialists at the Red Cross / Red Crescent Climate Centre (RCCC) around the world, has been founded to change this, and provide robust assessments on the role of climate change in the aftermath of the event.
• The initiative is led by Drs Friederike Otto at Imperial College, and Sjoukje Philip and Sarah Kew at KNMI.
• The primary objective of WWA is to provide timely and scientifically rigorous information about the links between extreme weather events and climate change. Its work is aimed at informing policymakers, the media, and the public about the potential impacts of climate change and the urgent need to take action to mitigate its effects.
• WWA uses a standardized, transparent methodology to conduct its analyses, which includes comparing the likelihood and severity of an extreme weather event in a world with climate change versus a world without it. The organization collaborates with climate scientists from around the world to conduct these analyses, and all results are subject to peer review to ensure scientific rigor.
• WWA response to an extreme meteorological event has three parts:
  • Define the event: the geographic region affected, which weather parameters are of interest.
  • Gather historical data: weather data from the region from 1950 to the present. From this historical data statistics on normal and extreme weather patterns for the locale can be computed.
  • Simulate the event many times with computer models, comparing simulations with present-day greenhouse gas conditions against previous greenhouse-gas conditions.

Methods used by World Weather Attribution

• Observational Data: WWA uses observational data from weather stations, satellites, and other sources to analyze the characteristics and intensity of extreme weather events.
• Climate Models: WWA uses climate models to simulate the weather patterns and conditions that would have occurred in a world without climate change, and compares these results to the observed weather patterns to determine the extent to which climate change may have contributed to the event.
• Statistical Methods: WWA uses statistical methods to analyze the probability of an extreme weather event occurring in a world with and without climate change, and to estimate the potential influence of climate change on the event.
• Attribution Methods: WWA uses a range of attribution methods to determine the extent to which climate change may have contributed to an extreme weather event. These methods include event attribution, probabilistic event attribution, and causal inference.
• Ensemble Methods: WWA uses ensemble methods to account for the uncertainty in climate models and observations. Ensemble methods involve running multiple climate models with different parameters to generate a range of possible outcomes and reduce the uncertainty in the analysis.
• Peer Review: WWA’s analysis is subject to peer review by independent climate scientists to ensure scientific rigor and accuracy.
• Finally, these results are disseminated through media channels, making our expertise available to provide additional explanations and context.