Climate extremes are 'unprecedented' (a mixed bag of .. uhh.. stuff, climatically speaking)

BBC News ^ | 7/3/13 | Roger Harrabin

[NormsRevenge]

The Earth experienced unprecedented recorded climate extremes during the decade 2001-2010, according to the World Meteorological Organisation.

Its new report says more national temperature records were reported broken than in previous decades.

There was an increase in deaths from heatwaves over that decade.

This was particularly pronounced during the extreme summers in Europe in 2003 and in the Russian Federation during 2010.

But despite the decade being the second wettest since 1901 (with 2010 the wettest year recorded) fewer people died from floods than in the previous decade.

Better warning systems and increased preparedness take much of the credit for the reduced deaths. The WMO says smarter climate information will be needed as the climate continues to change.

Its report, The Global Climate 2001-2010, A Decade of Climate Extremes, analysed global and regional trends, as well as extreme events such as Hurricane Katrina, floods in Pakistan and droughts in the Amazon, Australia and East Africa.

The decade was the warmest for both hemispheres and for both land and ocean surface temperatures. The record warmth was accompanied by a rapid decline in Arctic sea ice, and accelerating loss of mass from the Greenland and Antarctic ice sheets and from glaciers.

Global mean sea levels rose about 3mm per year - about double the observed 20th century trend of 1.6mm per year. Global sea level averaged over the decade was about 20cm higher than in 1880.

[Hardraade]

oh yes. the horses... they were supposed to bury London in horsecr*p, weren’t they?

Instead, they had to wait for the BBC.

[az_gila]

Was Katrina really and “extreme event” as mentioned in the report?

Or was it only extreme because of where it hit and the damage it did?

[I want the USA back]

Bull$h!t. Climate and weather fluctuate. All attempts to define ‘normal’ climate or weather have failed.

[faucetman]

Global warming or cooling doesn't matter. Man can't cause it and man can't stop it. If cooling is happening we can't warm the earth back up. If warming is happening we can't cool the earth back down. So why worry or care if climate change is happening, because IT IS! Climate is constantly changing as is everything else. NOTHING is static.

Man's puffed up importance of himself thinks he can stop the shrinking of glaciers by putting white plastic sheets to cover part of a glacier only to discover that the environmental impact of doing the project was more damaging than the ice they saved. Also it was a project that could never be accomplished on a grand scale. Why would we even want to?

Also, warming or cooling would have plusses as well as minuses. Crops, shipping, fishing, fuel consumption and on & on. Ask the Viking farmers that are living in Greenland. Well, there used to be. Ask the Alaskan crab fisherman about the recent global warming.