Jeff Master’s WunderBlog has a list of the top weather stories of 2012. The weather was a mess throughout the world in 2012.
Only including billion dollar or higher disasters, close to 400 people died from weather related injuries in the U.S., over 500 in China, over 400 in Pakistan died in a flood, and 1900 died in the Philippines from Super Typhoon Bopha. Europe had one of it’s worst cold snaps ever, killing over 800 people. Santa Claus is going to have to move or invest in floatation devices since ice at the North Pole continues it’s drastic decline. I would suggest he move to Greenland, but it’s also melting so fast it might actually be green soon. The Northern Hemisphere experienced record summer heat and is still in a major drought.
Year after year of increasing extreme weather and we continue to do nothing. It’s not like we can stop polluting today and this stuff will stop tomorrow. The damage we’re doing today will be felt for a decade or more. Denialist continue to win the day, though. I would say evidence for global warming is mounting, but it’s been a mountain of evidence for years. We’re just adding grains of sand at this point.
Here’s a good list of weather extremes occurring in the past year. The cold snap in Siberia is insane.
http://www.nytimes.com/2013/01/11/science/earth/extreme-weather-grows-in-frequency-and-intensity-around-world.html?pagewanted=1&_r=2&smid=fb-share&
“In Siberia, thousands of people were left without heat when natural gas liquefied in its pipes and water mains burst.”