EDGEWISE

Qiaohong Sun’s study adds nine more years of obser vations to an earlier study of historic weather-station data, making it current to 2018. As well, it adds regional data that wasn’t part of the first study and examines extreme precipitation trends for individual continents and regions, as well as looking at trends across the globe.

Water has replaced fire in recent years to become the leading cause of damage to Canadian homes. Damage to homes from sewer backup and basement flooding now exceeds $2 billion a year, and has been on the rise for more than 25 years.

Although mounting insurance losses show that vulnerability to local flooding is increasing, rainfall obser vations in many places don’t yet show the effects of global warming on extreme rainfall. Zwiers points out that the expected effect of warming on extreme rainfall is nevertheless evident in enough places to indicate that climate change can’t be ignored.

With climate warming, the “one-in-20, 50- and 100-year ” extreme precipitation events that guide the design of the world’s infrastructure are expected to occur more frequently, as well as with more intensity.

Workforce needs are growing for knowledgeable people able to incorporate climate science into their work. PCIC and the Canadian Centre for Climate Services are exploring how to ensure sufficient capacity. Zwiers notes that UVic is considering the introduction of a bachelor of science degree in climate science.