Attributing changes in heavy precipitation to anthropogenic activities (Section 11.4.4) cannot be readily translated to attributing changes in floods to human activities, because precipitation is only one of the multiple factors, albeit an important one, that affect floods.
Even the Trudeau government's left-leaning Environment and Climate Change Canada in its 2019 climate report said,
There do not appear to be detectable trends in short-duration extreme precipitation in Canada for the country as a whole based on available station data.
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OK, not more rain. So there must be more drought then, right? No, the latest IPCC report says:
There is low confidence in the emergence of drought frequency in observations, for any type of drought, in all regions.
Oh, but hold on, we will have more and more heat waves across the US and Canada due to man-made (anthropogenic) climate change, activists tell us. No, the IPCC says we don't really know. In particular, the IPCC indicates low confidence (~20%) for the detection of trends in extreme heat and the attribution of such trends to human causes for both central and eastern North America.
But what about more and more intense storms? For example, the derecho (which is a line of intense, widespread, and fast-moving windstorms, and occasionally thunderstorms, that moves across a great distance and is characterized by damaging winds) a year ago in Ottawa, Canada and other extreme winds and storms that are blamed on anthropogenic climate change.Concerning extreme winds (between 60S and 60N), the IPCC says:
the observed intensity of extreme winds is becoming less severe in the lower to mid-latitudes, while becoming more severe in higher latitudes poleward of 60 degrees (low confidence)
Note: cities at or north of 60 degrees latitude include Reykjavik, Iceland (64°N), and Helsinki, Finland (60°N). OK, so Fins and Icelanders might have a reason to worry about stronger winds, but not us.
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The IPCC also shows no upwards trends in landfalling hurricanes, includingthe strongest storms.
How about winter storms that are often blamed on anthropogenic climate change? The IPCC says, concerning winter storms:
There is low confidence in observed recent changes in the total number of extratropical cyclones over both hemispheres. There is also low confidence in past-century trends in the number and intensity of the strongest extratropical cyclones over the Northern Hemisphere…
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