Climate change blamed for Louisiana's rainfall.

• Position: Global Warming - Brief article

Human-caused climate warming increased foe chances of foe torrential rains that unleashed devastating floods in south Louisiana in mid August by at least 40%, claim a team of scientists from Princeton (N.J.) University and partner institutions with foe international research network World Weather Attribution. The research team also found that climate change boosted the chance of rain volume by 10%.

"With this attribution analysis we looked specifically at the deluge in south Louisiana," says lead author Karin van der Wiel, postdoctoral research associate in Princeton's Program in Atmospheric and Oceanic Sciences. "We found global warming can play a measurable role in events--such as the August rains that resulted in such devastating floods--affecting so many people."

The research focused on foe central U.S. Gulf Coast, and investigated events as strong as that observed at the height of foe storm (Aug. 12-14) to provide a regional context and a broader assessment of risk. The climate-model experiments involved altering the climate based on levels of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere, aerosols...