Mother Nature Strikes Back: A Review of Extreme Weather in 2016

Extreme weather is a deadly corollary of climate change. A UN study found that between 1995 and 2015, 600,000 people died from natural disasters. Global warming is known to exacerbate the intensity of extreme weather events. We are already seeing clear evidence of climate change playing a role in a growing number of natural disasters. Thanks to advances in attribution science we can now see the role that climate change plays in driving a succession of increasingly severe extreme weather events.

Infographic - Extreme Weather: A Survival Guide

© 2013, Richard Matthews. All rights reserved.

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Global Extreme Weather 2013 Timeline (Tiki-Toki)

In this post Tiki-Toki reviews some of the extreme weather events that have occurred around the globe in 2013. The pattern for extreme events that we saw in 2012 continued into 2013. In early 2013, parts of the Southern Hemisphere witnessed record-high temperatures, with Australia experiencing its hottest month in January 2013 since record-keeping began more than a century ago. Meanwhile, the central and northeastern United States saw record snowfall and blizzard conditions. Precipitation continued to be extreme throughout the spring, with Spain seeing its wettest March on record and China experiencing its wettest May since 1973. At the same time, New Zealand saw its worst drought in three decades, and California experienced its driest year-to-date. To illustrate this pattern, the World Resources Institute put together a timeline of extreme climate and weather events in 2013, which builds on the previous 2012 timeline.

Two Extreme Weather Reports Presented at COP 19/CMP 9 Support Climate Finance

Two extreme weather reports released at COP 19/CMP 9 lend support to the need for climate finance. The UN has indicates that this year was one of the warmest years on record and a Global Climate Risk Index shows that the countries most vulnerable to extreme weather are also some of the poorest. The top ten warmest years on record have all occurred since 1998. On Wednesday November 10 the UN declared that the first nine months of 2013 were the seventh warmest on record since records began in 1850. 2013 is tied with 2003 with an average global land and ocean surface temperatures 0.48C above the 1961-1990 average. WMO secretary general Michel Jarraud indicated that growing levels of anthropogenic greenhouse gases (GHGs) mean that warming is inevitable.

The World Meteorological Organisation (WMO) further announced that there is a trend of extreme weather and they stated that the impact of storms like Typhoon Haiyan are being exacerbated by rising sea levels. While it is impossible to attribute an individual weather event to climate change, that should not be taken to mean that there is no relationship. They clearly stated that rising seas make coastal populations more vulnerable to storm surges. Seas have risen by about 20 cms (8 inches) in the past century.

Video - Extreme Weather May not be More Frequent now but it Will Be

We're living in a warmer world, we're living in a melting world, and sea levels are rising. Bill Patzert, a scientist at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, says while we may not be seeing evidence of more frequent weather events in the US at present but we are seeing clear evidence of global warming and this is known to increase extreme weather events.

Video - Superstorm Sandy Climate Change and Extreme Weather: Two Women that are Models of Resilience

Here are the stories of two women who have played key roles in post Sandy recovery. Here is a very brief review of a few highlights from hurricane Sandy as well as a caution about extreme weather caused by climate change.

As Governor Cuomo said, "There is a wake-up call here and there is a lesson to be learned, there is a reality has existed for a long time that we have been blind to and that is climate change, extreme weather, call it what you will and our vulnerability to it, it was true ten years ago it was true five years ago it is undeniable today."

Infographic - The Cost of Weather Disasters in 2013 (Jan - Sep)