Extreme Weather

Extreme weather includes unusual, severe or unseasonal weather; weather at the extremes of the historical distribution—the range that has been seen in the past. The most commonly used definition of extreme weather is based on an event's climatological distribution: Extreme weather occurs only 5% or less of the time. According to climate scientists and meteorological researchers, extreme weather events have been rare. An increase in extreme weather events has been attributed to man-made global warming, with a 2012 study indicated an increasing threat from extreme weather.