New AI-powered tool could help predict heat waves, link them to climate change

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🗞️ Driving the news: Researchers in the U.S. West have developed a new AI-powered tool to predict when and how heat waves occur in a changing climate
•  This low-cost method, published in Science Advances, aims to clarify the link between global warming and extreme weather events, potentially transforming how scientists forecast future heat waves

🔭 The context: The tool, created by scientists from Stanford and Colorado State University, uses machine learning to predict daily maximum temperatures based on regional weather conditions and global temperature data
•  The approach, trained on climate simulations from 1850 to 2100, was tested on real-world events, including the deadly 2023 Texas heat wave

🌍 Why it matters for the planet: This new method could inform climate adaptation strategies and serve as evidence in legal cases related to climate damages
•  As global temperatures rise, extreme heat waves like those in Europe, Russia, and India could become more frequent, with significant impacts on human health, infrastructure, and ecosystems

⏭️ What's next: While the tool shows promise, further analysis is needed before it can be used for critical applications like climate adaptation and litigation
•  The researchers believe that AI will continue to play a crucial role in understanding the complex connections between climate change and extreme weather

💬 One quote: “AI hasn’t solved all the scientific challenges, but this new method is a really exciting advance that I think will get adopted for a lot of different applications,” said senior author Noah Diffenbaugh, a professor of Earth system science at Stanford

📈 One stat: The AI tool predicted that global warming intensified the 2023 Texas heat wave by 2.12 to 2.56 degrees Fahrenheit, underscoring the significant impact of climate change on extreme weather

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