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The Associated Press summarized the findings as follows:

Droughts will get dryer, storms will get stormier and floods will get deeper with changing climate. … There has been an increase in the frequency of heavy downpours, especially over northern states, and these are likely to continue in the future, Thomas R. Karl, director of the National Climatic Data Center, said in a briefing. For example, Karl said, by the end of this century rainfall amounts expected to occur every 20 years could be taking place every five years. … A day so hot that it is experienced only once every 20 years would occur every three years by the middle of the century, under the mid-range projections of climate models, the report said.

The report predicts that rainfall will be less frequent, but when it comes, more intense.

Earlier analysis by a panel of the nation’s leading climate scientists said the earth is warming and concluded with 90 percent certainty that it is caused by humans releasing greenhouse gases in the atmosphere.

There is good news in that finding. It means that we have a 90 percent chance of reducing the severity of climate change and extreme weather events if we take steps to reduce greenhouse gas emissions.

Contact: Chuck Hassebrook, chuckh@cfra.org or 402.687.2103 x 1018 for more.