According to the UN weather agency, the early cooling from La Nina, will not prevent 2012 from being one of the hottest years on record. As global emissions continue to rise this situation is destined to get worse.
The WMO said there were major heat waves in the US and Europe. Average temperatures in January-October were the highest on record in the continental US, and the ninth highest worldwide.
Hurricane activity was above average in the Atlantic, with 10 storms including Sandy. Typhoon Sanba which struck the Philippines, Japan, and the Korean Peninsula was even stronger than Sandy. Droughts impacted the US, Russia, parts of China and northern Brazil. Nigeria saw exceptional floods, while southern China saw its heaviest rainfall in three decades.
But of all the weather events in 2012, the most ominous to climate scientists was the unprecedented loss of ice cover on the North Pole.
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