Climate change increases the frequency of extreme weather events.
NOT BSTOTAL BS
HARDLY BS — Verdict: Mostly True
Verified by Lenz ·
The Short Version
The claim is largely accurate. The IPCC's AR6 assessment calls it an "established fact" that human-caused warming has increased the frequency and/or intensity of several major categories of extreme weather — particularly heat extremes, heavy precipitation, droughts, and compound events. However, the claim overgeneralizes: total hurricane counts are not clearly rising, and evidence for tornadoes and hail remains weak. The science supports "some extreme weather events are becoming more frequent," not a blanket increase across all types.
Caveats
The claim lacks critical qualifiers: increases are well-established for heat extremes and heavy precipitation, but not for all types of extreme weather (e.g., total hurricane counts, tornadoes, hail).
Some extreme weather types — such as cold extremes — are actually decreasing as the climate warms, which contradicts a blanket 'frequency increase' framing.
Attribution studies show a non-trivial share of extreme weather events with inconclusive or no detectable human influence, reflecting genuine scientific uncertainty for certain hazards and regions.