How climate change is affecting extreme weather around the world

In 2004, a trio of researchers published a study , which achieved something that had never been seen before. They calculated the specific contribution that human-caused climate change has made to individual extreme weather events. The extreme event in question was the heat wave in Europe in the summer of 2003. Week after week, the extreme heat had a devastating impact, killing more than 70,000 people across the continent.

Scientists have found that human influence has at least doubled the risk of such an extreme heat wave occurring. The findings made headlines around the world. (Robert McSweeney and Ayesha Tandon, Design and development by Kerry Cleaver, Tom Pearson and Tom Prater, more at interactive.carbonbrief.org)