2001 – 2010: A Decade of Climate Extremes

According to the World Meteorological Organisation, the climate extremes between 2001-2010 are unprecedented.

06:51 04 July 2013

World Meteorological Organisation has released a report, The Global Climate 2001-2010, A Decade of Climate Extremes, that says climate extremes for the last decade are unprecedented. It added that more national temperature records were reported broken than in previous decades.

Extreme summers in Europe in 2003 and in the Russian Federation during 2010 have resulted to an increased in deaths from heat waves.

Meanwhile, 2010 was recorded to be the wettest year however, fewer people died from floods when compared to previous decade. This is because of increased preparedness and better warning systems.

The decade is found to be the warmest for both hemisphere and for both land and ocean surface temperature. This is because of rapid decline in the Arctic sea ice and accelerating loss of mass from the Greenland and Antarctic ice sheets and from glaciers.

The WMO Secretary-General Michel Jarraud said: “Natural climate variability, caused in part by interactions between our atmosphere and oceans means that some years are cooler than others. On an annual basis, the global temperature curve is not a smooth one. On a long-term basis the underlying trend is clearly in an upward direction, more so in recent times.”