WMQ

thro!gh ts climale mo.itoring activities cont nued iss!ing press releases,statements and olher intormation on ir
2007. Comprehensive information and details which are published nrhewMostarementonlhec imatein200Tare summar zed n th s article.

the v6rious climate anomalies and exlremes which occuf red

Globally,2007 wsamongstlhe l0warmest years on record.

started with record-break ng temperature anomalies throughoul

theworld.lnparrsof Europe,winterandsprinq rankedamongst thewarmest ever recorded, with anomalies ofmorethar 4'C above the long-term month y averagesforJanuary and April.
Reg onelly, extreme sum mer
h

eat waves affected

south eastern

E!rope,soLthern USA, Japan and Auslralia, leading lo record temperatures and forestfires in many locations. Forexample, lemperatures rose to 45'C ln Bu garia and dozens oi peop e
d ed.

Ontheotherhand, c imaie and weatherexiremesaffected

several areas n diffe.ent ways. Severe to extreme

dro!ght

afiected la.ge pa.ts oithewestern a.d northern mid west of the USA, extending.orth to souihern Ontario in Canada, A comb nation ofdrought and strong Santa Ana winds brought devasrating i res to parts of southern California in Ocrober, desr.oying morelhan 1 500 homes and a{fecring h!ndreds ol lhousands ol people n A!stralia, while conditionswere not
6s severely dry as

i.

2006, long term

dro!ght meant water

resources remained extremely owin ma.y areas,leadln9to

extenslve f res, Southern China experienced severe drought

lrom late Septemberto mid-December.

By cont.ast, f ooding aiiecled many African co!nlr es. In S!dan,totrentialrainscausedflashf oodsinmanyareas n

J

une and July, affecting more than 410 000 people, including

200 000 left homeless. The slrong

sollh wesleriy monsoon

res! ted in one of the heaviest J!ly'Septmber rainf.lL periods, triggef ng widespread f ash floods thal alleded
several count.ies in west and central Africa and paris ot

the Greater Horr. Some 1.5 mrllron peop e were aiiected a.d h!ndreds of thousands homes destroyed Tropical cyclones hrt many areas Panicularly nonceable was tropica cyclone Goru which nade la.dlall in Ona. and lhe lslam c Bepub c of lran. Gor! was the strongest trop caL cyclone io h t the region since records began in 1945. Tropical cycione Sidr mde la.diall rn Bangiadesh, killing more than 3 000 and destroying or da rnaging near y

Theyear200Twasalsocharacterizedbylwomajorc mate variations. One was d!e 1o the evolul on oi La Nina which
nfluenced climate patterns across many parts ofthe globe.
The oiher w6s ihe shrirking of Arctic sea ce at the end of

the me tseason in September. Arcticsea icextentwas39 per cent below the long-term average trom 1979 to 2000
and 23 percentbelowthe previo!s record set

i.2005 The parts ofthe Arctic opened the disappearance of ice across
Canadlan Northwesl Passagefor aboutfive weeks in August