Attribution science: Reporting on extreme weather in the context of climate change

This is the 8th in a series of articles by Knight Center students who attended the 2026 annual convention of the Society of Environmental Journalists.

By Anna Ironside

Journalists and climate experts gathered during the Society of Environmental Journalists conference in Chicago to discuss how attribution science is helping reporters explain the connection between climate change and extreme weather while improving the public understanding of different climate impacts.

The panel was moderated by Ethan Brown, a training program coordinator at the Metcalf Institute at the University of Rhode Island, who said attribution science helps answer questions communities increasingly ask after disasters.

“Attribution science is an emerging field that allows us to answer a question that communities are increasingly asking: how climate change influenced an individual extreme weather event,” Brown said.

Attribution science is a field of research that finds how much human-caused climate change influenced the intensity or likelihood of a specific weather event.

Shel Winkley, a senior engagement specialist and meteorologist at Climate Central, explained that attribution science uses climate models to compare with and without human-produced carbon emissions to find out how climate change affected the likelihood or intensity of a weather event.

“What attribution science can tell us is it tells us how much more likely was that hot temperature, or that record heat,” Winkley said. “How much more likely, or how many more times could we see this happen as we continue into the future?”

Attribution science does not determine that climate change created a weather event.

“It does not say that a weather event was made by climate change,” Winkley said. “A hurricane is going to be a hurricane.”

He further explained that attribution science shows how climate change can cause weather events to intensify.

“We understand that humans added more intensity and more rainfall to that hurricane,” Winkley said.

Winkley said attribution science helps journalists explain climate change in ways that audiences can understand.

“It helps make that big abstract thing of climate change,” Winkley said. “It helps people understand it. It personalizes it, it starts those conversations.”

Television Jamaica reporter Kalisha Williams said she had this in mind and used this approach while covering Hurricanes Beryl in 2024 and Melissa in 2025. Williams said her initial reporting focused on immediate community needs rather than on climate change.

“In the immediate aftermath, the focus is on what’s happening now, getting relief to people,” Williams said. “People want to know where they can get help.”

As recovery efforts continued, Williams said she began reporting on the science behind the storms.

“By week two, I started making the connection to say, okay, this happened now, but there may be more like Hurricane Melissa in the future,” Williams said. “What is causing this? How is climate change helping in terms of the rapid intensification of these hurricanes?”

Williams has continued to encourage journalists to continue climate reporting beyond the initial disaster.

CBS Chicago meteorologist David Yeomans spoke on how attribution science provides viewers with context about changing weather patterns.

“I see it as an important bit of context to give our viewers and our audience, sort of the bigger why behind some of our weather patterns,” Yeomans said.

Yeomans said research suggests tornado activity has shifted eastward in recent decades.

“What we’ve seen over the last 40 years, there’s fewer tornadoes in places like Texas and Oklahoma,”

As of now, scientists cannot confidently attribute individual tornadoes to climate change, Yeomans said reporters can still use the broader scientific findings in their reporting, and Brown explained that attribution science does not have to become the central focus of every climate story.

Winkley encourages journalists to use available scientific resources and continue building confidence when covering climate issues.

“You’re not going to always do it perfectly, and that’s okay,” Winkley said.

He said even a brief mention of attribution science can help readers understand the role that climate change plays in extreme weather.