(CNN) Extreme weather events that spanned the globe in 2017 have been directly linked to -- and in some cases were even caused by -- continued warming of the planet via human influence through greenhouse gas emissions, according to a new report.

For the second year in a row, the annual report from the American Meteorological Society found weather extremes that could not have happened without human-caused warming of the climate. Advances in scientific modeling and additional climbs in temperatures are making the connection between global warming and extreme weather much more concrete.

"Global temperature, the backdrop in which extremes are unfolding, continues to rise. ... Nature is thereby increasingly rolling back its curtain of sensitivity to rising greenhouse gases," Martin Hoerling, a research scientist at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration and one of the authors of Monday's report, wrote in an email.

"This alone is making it easier to scientifically identify the fingerprint of human influence, not to mention improved modeling tools," Hoerling said.

People walk through the flooded streets of Houston on August 27, 2017, after Hurricane Harvey dumped record rains.

Scientists found that record warm waters in the Tasman Sea in 2017 and 2018 "were virtually impossible without global warming," and they concluded that a crippling drought in East Africa that has led to food shortages for millions of people would not have occurred naturally before the Industrial Revolution, when humans began to interfere with the climate system.

Documentation of the Great Barrier Reef near Port Douglas from Greenpeace Australia Pacific shows damage to coral from above-average temperatures.

Included in the 17 events identified in the report in which global warming played a role were major floods such as those with Hurricane Harvey, fires, heat waves over land and in the ocean, and even record low sunshine in Japan in August 2017.

The findings are part of an annual report titled "Explaining Extreme Events in 2017 from a Climate Perspective," which reveals clear ties between recent extremes in weather and human influences of the climate.

"This is about understanding that climate is already changing the risks of extremes," said Jeff Rosenfeld, editor in chief of the Bulletin of the AMS, the journal in which the report was published.

The report features the research of 120 scientists from 10 countries and examines a wide array of extreme weather and events from 2017. The scientists looked at how these events compare with historical observations as well as model simulations to determine whether there was influence from climate change.

These type of comparisons, known as attribution studies, attempt to quantify humans' role in making certain events more likely, or more extreme, through warming the planet.

"Attribution science has given everyone a rational, quantifiable way to talk about human-caused climate change as it manifests itself to people," Rosenfeld said, "not as a technical number, a global trend, but as a concrete force in the risks we all face."

New in this year's report: perspective essays written by managers and planners in various sectors of society to show the importance the attribution studies and how they can help prepare for and navigate extreme events.

For example, during Harvey, water managers in Texas and Louisiana were challenged with rainfall forecasts far beyond anything ever observed, and according to Julie Vano, a scientist with the National Center for Atmospheric Research who was involved in the report, the managers struggled to believe that much rainfall would actually fall.

Photos: Hurricane Harvey slams Texas Downtown Houston is seen behind the flooded Buffalo Bayou a few days after Hurricane Harvey came ashore in August 2017. The Category 4 storm caused historic flooding. It set a record for the most rainfall from a tropical cyclone in the continental United States, with 51 inches of rain recorded in areas of Texas. An estimated 27 trillion gallons of water fell over Texas and Louisiana during a six-day period. Hide Caption 1 of 22 Photos: Hurricane Harvey slams Texas NASA astronaut Jack Fischer photographed Hurricane Harvey from the International Space Station. Hide Caption 2 of 22 Photos: Hurricane Harvey slams Texas Steve Culver comforts his dog Otis in the hurricane aftermath. Harvey destroyed most of his home in Rockport while he and his wife were there. Hide Caption 3 of 22 Photos: Hurricane Harvey slams Texas Houston police officer Daryl Hudeck carries Catherine Pham and her 13-month-old son, Aiden, after rescuing them from floodwaters. Hide Caption 4 of 22 Photos: Hurricane Harvey slams Texas A damaged home is seen in the Key Allegro neighborhood of Rockport. Hide Caption 5 of 22 Photos: Hurricane Harvey slams Texas A car is submerged by floodwaters on a freeway near downtown Houston. Hide Caption 6 of 22 Photos: Hurricane Harvey slams Texas Melani Zurawski cries while inspecting her home in Port Aransas, Texas. Hide Caption 7 of 22 Photos: Hurricane Harvey slams Texas A graveyard is flooded in Pearland, Texas. Hide Caption 8 of 22 Photos: Hurricane Harvey slams Texas Soldiers with the National Guard patrol Rockport, looking for residents trapped in their homes. Hide Caption 9 of 22 Photos: Hurricane Harvey slams Texas Evacuees are loaded onto a truck in Houston. Hide Caption 10 of 22 Photos: Hurricane Harvey slams Texas People push a stalled pickup through a flooded street in Houston. Hide Caption 11 of 22 Photos: Hurricane Harvey slams Texas Rockport residents return to their destroyed home. Hide Caption 12 of 22 Photos: Hurricane Harvey slams Texas Rescue boats fill Tidwell Road in Houston as they help flood victims evacuate the area. Hide Caption 13 of 22 Photos: Hurricane Harvey slams Texas People wait to be rescued from their flooded home in Houston. Hide Caption 14 of 22 Photos: Hurricane Harvey slams Texas Volunteers in Dallas organize items donated for hurricane victims. Hide Caption 15 of 22 Photos: Hurricane Harvey slams Texas When Harvey slammed the Texas coast and flooded much of Houston, volunteers sprang into action. Some came from as far away as the Florida Everglades, boats in tow, ready to rescue people trapped in their homes. Hide Caption 16 of 22 Photos: Hurricane Harvey slams Texas Larry Koser Jr. and his son Matthew look for important papers and heirlooms inside a flooded home in Houston. Hide Caption 17 of 22 Photos: Hurricane Harvey slams Texas Members of the National Guard rest at a furniture store in Richmond, Texas. Hide Caption 18 of 22 Photos: Hurricane Harvey slams Texas Volunteer rescue workers help a woman from her flooded home in Port Arthur, Texas. Hide Caption 19 of 22 Photos: Hurricane Harvey slams Texas This aerial photo shows flooded residential neighborhoods in Houston. Hide Caption 20 of 22 Photos: Hurricane Harvey slams Texas Tammy Dominguez and her husband, Christopher, sleep on cots at the George R. Brown Convention Center, where thousands of people were taking shelter in Houston. Hide Caption 21 of 22 Photos: Hurricane Harvey slams Texas An elderly patient waits to be rescued from the Gulf Health Care Center in Port Arthur. The facility was evacuated with the help of first responders and volunteers. Hide Caption 22 of 22

"Attribution studies can be a tool to help us better understand these extremes that are increasingly beyond our experience," Vano said, but knowing how a warming atmosphere can influence these storms can "help inform their decisions and enhance public safety to reduce impacts of extreme hazards."

Not every extreme event is made more likely or more impactful by climate change.

According to Hoerling, "over the 7-yr period [that the annual report has been released], about 30% of studies found little to no impact of climate change on an events intensity or likelihood of occurrence."

But advances in the science of attributing extreme events to climate change are providing useful -- and potentially legally necessary -- information that must be taken into account by future planners in the public and private sectors.

"This report tells us that the science that informs building safety and structural design criteria -- from farms to factories to homes and office buildings -- is changing," Lindene Patton, an attorney with the Earth & Water Law Group, who participated in the study and provided context on how attribution science could lead to legal liability for extreme weather events, wrote in an email.

Patton explained how such things as building codes and spill-protection plans must be created using the knowledge that more severe/intense events are likely due to global warming, and negligence of the matter could create legal liability.

Extreme events influenced by warming

, the report says. Heat waves like the one in southern Europe and the Mediterranean in 2017, dubbed "Lucifer" in the media , are now three times more likely than they were in 1950the report says.

And though it wasn't included in this year's report because it happened too recently, extreme drought and heat wave this year in Europe saw temperatures climb above 32 degrees Celsius (90 degrees Fahrenheit) all the way to the Arctic Circle in Scandinavia and unprecedented drought in north and central Europe.

Hurricane Harvey's rainfall, which totaled over 60 inches over the course of four days in late August 2017, was worsened by a warmer climate providing warmer-than-normal ocean temperatures and more moisture in the air, a fact backed up by multiple studies, the report says.

Not all of the impacts from these climate extremes are direct.

E

xtremely warm sea surface temperatures off the coast of Africa doubled the probability of drought in East Africa, leaving more than 6 million people in Somalia facing food shortages. The analysis in the new report found that such extreme ocean heat would not have occurred in a pre-industrial climate, before human carbon emissions.