Extreme weather events are battering both ends of the world this week. In the U.S., Winter Storm Fern set snow records in parts of the country last weekend, quickly followed by one of the longest cold-air outbreaks in decades. A bomb cyclone is expected to hit the southeast over the weekend. Across the globe in southern Australia, a heat dome is setting records, with temperatures reaching 120Fthe most severe heat wave the country has experienced in 16 years. Its difficult to outright blame climate change for any one specific weather event, but as our planet warms, it could mean that extremes of all kinds, occurring at the same time around the world, could become the norm. You can't really attribute any specific single weather event to climate change, says Gary Lackmann, professor in the department of Marine, Earth and Atmospheric Sciences at NC State University. That said, scientists are getting better at determining the degree to which climate change can make such events more likely or severe. As greenhouse gasses are released into the atmosphere, they trap heat, causing air and ocean temperatures to warm and contributing to shifting weather patterns. As Lackmann puts it: Climate change loads the dice a little bit towards more extreme events.From hot days to snow storms, hurricanes and droughts, extreme weather events have always been natural. We've had extreme weather as long as we have records of weather information, says Lackmann. But research shows that climate change is
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