s Earths climate changes, it is impacting extreme weather across the planet. Record-breaking heat waves on land and in the ocean, drenching rains, severe floods, years-long droughts, extreme wildfires, and widespread flooding during hurricanes are all becoming more frequent and more intense.
Climate change may reduce deaths and injuries from extreme cold, but it won't offset the rise in heat-related deaths. Watch a short video about climate-related health effects from extreme heat, and what communities can do to prepare.
Climate change affects global temperature and precipitation patterns. These effects, in turn, influence the intensity and, in some cases, the frequency of extreme environmental events, such as forest fires, hurricanes, heat waves, floods, droughts, and storms.
Climate change will drive more frequent and extreme summer heat waves in the western United States by the late 2020s, the Great Lakes region by the mid 2030s, and in the northern and southern Plains by the 2050s and 2070s, respectively.
But as man-made climate change continues to disrupt global weather patterns, that mass of cold air, known as the polar vortex, is straying beyond its usual confines.
