This summer has been extremely hot. July 2016 was the planet’s hottest month since records began more than 100 years ago. In August, a fire in California called the Blue Cut Fire forced the evacuation of more than 34,000 buildings. More than 80,000 people in the Los Angeles area can’t go back to their homes. At the same time, extreme rainstorms hit the state of Louisiana, causing the worst flooding in modern history.  At least 11 people died and 40,000 homes were damaged. For years, scientists have speculated about the possible effects of climate change and how quickly we might begin to notice them. Computer models predict that rising temperatures will increase droughts and the chance of extreme weather. While climate change is just one of many factors that contribute to extreme events like Louisiana’s flooding or the fires in California, it does have the ability to push the odds one way or another, according to Adam Sobel, a Professor of environmental science at Columbia University. “You can’t ever say ‘this event was caused by climate change’ or ‘this single event is conclusive evidence of climate change,’ but you can say that climate change appears to have made it such a percent more probable, or given that it occurred, make it such and such percent more extreme,” said Sobel. Louisiana State Climatology Professor Barry Keim says it’s “way, way too early” to make a direct connection. “We need a lot more data and understanding of the science to be able to say something conclusively.” Keim says it’s also hard to know what this means for local and national government policies. “This is just so complex, so politically loaded that it’s really tough to navigate through these waters, so to speak.”

climate change — a change in global or regional climate patterns, in particular a change apparent from the mid to late 20th century onwards and attributed largely to the increased levels of atmospheric carbon dioxide produced by fossil fuels climatologist — an expert who studies climate, scientifically defined as weather conditions averaged over a period of time