Americans predict extreme weather is the new normal

• The poll, conducted June 13-15, took place before devastating Texas floods killed over 100 people.
• Data in it revealed a significant partisan split on climate change, with Democrats (84%) more likely than Republicans (38%) to say extreme weather has gotten worse.

What they're saying: Friederike Otto, a spokesperson for the climate scientist group World Weather Attribution, told Axios it was unlikely to study the Texas floods but there's enough scientific evidence to connect the heavy rainfall to climate change.

• "We don't need to wait for an attribution study – extreme downpours like these are exactly what science expects in a rapidly warming world," Otto said.

By the numbers: Extreme weather events cost the U.S. economy an estimated $179.8 to $496 billion per year in 2023 dollars, according to a 2024 report from the Senate Joint Economic Committee.

• The analysis found that the U.S. needed to invest between $69 billion to $345 billion to upgrade infrastructure to protect against flooding.

The bottom line: Americans agree that extreme weather events are becoming more frequent, but there is a partisan divide on attributing the events to climate change.

• "You may or may not have personally experienced where you live an extreme weather event recently, but you sure paid for one that happened somewhere else in that window," said Daniel Swain, a climate scientist at the University of California's water resources institute.

The fine print: The poll surveyed a nationally representative sample of 1,023 adults age 18 or older, including 281 Republicans, 307 Democrats and 321 independents. The margin of error was ±3.2 percentage points at the 95% confidence level.