Stanley A. Changnon

TL;DR: Results of observational studies suggest that in many areas that have been analyzed, changes in total precipitation are amplified at the tails, and changes in some temperature extremes have been observed.

TL;DR: In this article, the authors present some indications from observations concerning how climatic extremes may have changed in the past and how they could change in the future either due to natural climate fluctuations or under conditions of greenhouse gas-induced warming.

TL;DR: This paper reviewed recent work on trends during this century in societal impacts (direct economic losses and fatalities) in the United States from extreme weather conditions and compares those with trends of associated atmospheric phenomena, concluding that increasing losses are primarily due to increasing vulnerability arising from a variety of societal changes, including a growing population in higher risk coastal areas and large cities, more property subject to damage, and lifestyle and demographic changes subjecting lives and property to greater exposure.

TL;DR: The 1995 Chicago heat wave caused 830 deaths, with 525 of these deaths in Chicago as discussed by the authors, and many factors were at fault, including an inadequate local heat wave warning system, power failures, questionable death assessments, inadequate ambulance service and hospital facilities, the heat island, an aging population, and the inability of many persons to properly ventilate their residences due to fear of crime or a lack of resources for fans or air conditioning.

TL;DR: This paper found that most of the upward trends found in financial losses are due to societal shifts leading to ever growing vulnerability to weather and climate extremes, and geographic locations of the large loss trends establish that population growth and demographic shifts are the major factors behind the increasing losses from weather-climate extremes.