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by Xinhua writers Yang Shilong Ian Desmond Youth Jersey , Lin Xiaochun, Li Ming
NEW YORK, Aug. 30 (Xinhua) -- Although it might be hard todirectly blame climate change for Hurricane Harvey, which haswreaked havoc in the U.S. state of Texas, human-caused globalwarming has enhanced some of the impacts of the tropic storm,climate scientists say.
EXTREME RAINFALL EXACERBATED BY CLIMATE CHANGE
""It's hard to put a figure on the amount that climate change hascontributed to Harvey's impacts but we've definitely exacerbatedthe flooding impacts in particular,"" Andrew King Charlie Blackmon Youth Jersey , climate extremesresearch fellow at School of Earth Sciences, University ofMelbourne, told Xinhua via email late Tuesday.
""Limiting the future damage from this kind of event coulddefinitely be seen as an incentive to follow the Paris Accord andattempt to keep global warming below the 2C (2 degrees Celsius)level,"" King said.
Harvey's biggest effect is through its intense and prolongedrainfall, the scholar noted, a low pressure system to the north iskeeping Harvey over southern Texas, resulting in greater rainfalltotals.
""We know that climate change is enhancing extreme rainfall. Asthe atmosphere is getting warmer DJ LeMahieu Youth Jersey , it can hold more moisture --roughly 7 percent more for every 1 degree Celsius rise intemperature,"" King explained.
""This means that when we get the right circumstances for veryextreme rainfall to occur, climate change is likely to make theseevents even worse than they would have been otherwise.""
""Without a full analysis, it is hard to put exact numbers onthis effect, but on a basic level, wetter skies mean more intenserain,"" he added.
According to local media reports Carlos Gonzalez Youth Jersey , Harvey's rainfall totalreached 49.32 inches (125.27 cm) in Friendswood, Texas, in lessthan a week. That is about as much rain as the metropolitan regionnormally sees in a year.
Harvey is ""unusual"" because it ""continued to strengthen in theGulf of Mexico until it made landfall...This is almost definitelylinked to the anomalously high sea surface temperatures there as itdeveloped,"" noted Sir Brian Hoskins, chairman of the GranthamInstitute for Climate Change at Imperial College London andprofessor of Meteorology at the University of Reading.
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