UN Cites Extreme Weather Throughout The World

The UN's authoritative voice on weather, climate and water, the WMO, released a report this week regarding the extreme weather occuring throughout every part of the world.  The report noted that global land surface temperatures are likely warmer than at any time since 1880, when record keeping of that kind began.  In January alone, the land temperature was 3.2 degrees Fahrenheit above the monthly average.

These numbers are significant because this means that the warming is not isolated to any specific part or parts of the world - there is a net increase in the total amount of heat throughout the world as a whole. And it is not a fluke:

IPCC further notes that there has been an increasing trend in the extreme events observed during the last 50 years, particularly heavy precipitation events, hot days, hot nights and heat waves.

Climate change projections indicate it to be very likely that hot extremes, heat waves and heavy precipitation events will continue to become more frequent.

Here are some of the unusal weather events that the WMO noted from this year:

• Cyclone Gonu, the first documented cyclone in the Arabian Sea, made landfall in Oman on 6 June with maximum sustained winds near 148 km/h. Gonu moved through the Persian Gulf making a second landfall in the Islamic Republic of Iran. In Oman, the cyclone affected more than 20,000 people and was responsible for more than 50 fatalities.

• Heavy rains during 6-10 June ravaged areas across southern China. Flooding affected over 13.5 million people with more than 120 fatalities due to floods and landslides.

• In May a series of large swell waves (estimated at 3-4.5 meters) swamped some 68 islands in 16 atolls in the Maldives causing serious flooding and extensive damages.

• Two extreme heat waves affected south-eastern Europe in June and July, breaking the previous records with temperatures exceeding 40 °C. On 23 July, temperatures hit 45°C in Bulgaria, setting a new record.

• In many European countries, April was the warmest ever recorded with the temperatures reaching more than 4°C over and above the long-term mean in some areas.

• On 27 June a winter weather front moved across South Africa bringing the country’s first significant snowfall since 1981 (25 cm of snow in parts of the country).

Alone, none of these events are cause for global concern, however together they form a global trend.  The WMO is attempting to counter by gathering better and more information.  Unfortunately, that doesnt actually solve the global climate crisis.