See the State of the Worlds Climate at the bottom of this page:

WMO report documents spiralling weather and climate impacts

Dr. Katharine Hayhoe -- Wealth of material and links can be found at this website linked below

Al Gore’s electrifying speech at COP29 : 

It was a powerful reminder of what’s at stake and a call for the ambition and accountability the world urgently needs. He reminds us that the stakes have never been higher and the time for decisive action is now.

Key Takeaways from the Speech:

👉 The Science is Undeniable: Decades-old climate predictions have proven correct, reinforcing the need to prioritise scientists over polluters.

👉 Greenland’s Melting Ice: 30 million tonnes of ice are lost every hour, disrupting vital ocean currents.

👉 Risk of System Collapse: Peer-reviewed studies warn of 2050 ecological system collapses if current trends continue.

👉 Escalating Impacts: Climate disasters are now weekly occurrences, accelerating far beyond historical trends.

👉 Fossil Fuel Dominance: Breaking the financial and political stranglehold of the fossil fuel industry is crucial for progress.

👉 Climate Migration Crisis: Up to 1 billion climate migrants this century could destabilise global social and political systems.

👉 Africa’s Solar Potential: Despite holding 60% of the world’s solar capacity, Africa faces huge barriers to capital, stalling its clean energy revolution.

Few have contributed as much to climate action and environmental protection as Al Gore over the last few decades:

📡 Innovative Solutions: Through Climate TRACE, he uses AI to monitor and expose global emissions.

For so many years Al Gore has sounded the alarm, championed bold solutions and inspired millions to act.

Thank you Al, for your unwavering leadership and tireless commitment to protecting our shared planet for generations to come. 🌏. (Credit: Reuters)

“The catastrophic impacts of climate change will be felt beyond the traditional horizons of most actors. It will impose costs on future generations that the current one has little direct incentive to fix… Once climate change becomes a defining issue for financial stability, it may already be too late.”  This is a quote from Mark Carney in 2015, then the governor of the Bank of England and chair of the Financial Stability Board (FSB), and now the prime minister of Canada. 

Graeme Maxton

Author, The Follies of the Western Mind and seven other books on climate change, energy, economics and the auto industry. Former Secretary General of the Club of Rome, former Regional Director EIU.

Climate change is not linear. People talk about climate change as if it is. The effect of a 2ºC rise in average temperatures is portrayed as if it’ll be twice as bad a 1ºC increase. But it won't be like that.

The more the planet moves from atmospheric stability, the weirder the climate will become, the larger the effects will be, and the longer it will take to come back into balance. But that's hard for people to see.

There are already some signals. The number of wildfires in England in the first six months of 2025 was 717% higher than 2024. The cost of fighting wildfires in the US has risen 10 fold over a few decades, not a few percent. The number of climate migrants is forecast to rise from 26 million in 2023 to 1.2 BILLION in 2050 according to Zurich Insurance. Small rises in temperature are already having a disproportionate impact on crop yields and livestock health. Studies show there is a non-linear relationship between temperature, economic output and life expectancies: higher temperatures = lower output and shorter lives.

Three other points:

👉 There are tipping points, like slides with a sudden decent. The decades-long melting of ice sheets, glaciers, and permafrost has already begun and is impossible to stop. The tipping point for a summer-ice-free Arctic in the long term has already been crossed. The same is true for the life of tropical coral. We are close to the point where the Amazon will die.

👉 Cutting emissions will not stop global warming because it's the concentration, the accumulation of gases, that's the problem.

👉 Even when emissions are cut, and societies stop making the problem WORSE, the average temperature will not stabilise quickly. It will continue to rise for many years due to lags in the atmospheric system.

All this means that there is less time to adapt or fix the damage than most people think. It means expectations are poorly aligned with reality. It means business and economic plans need to be rewritten.

WMO report documents spiralling weather and climate impacts

Press Release

19 March 2025

The clear signs of human-induced climate change reached new heights in 2024, with some of the consequences being irreversible over hundreds if not thousands of years, according to a new report from the World Meteorological Organization (WMO), which also underlined the massive economic and social upheavals from extreme weather. 

Key messages

• Key climate change indicators again reach record levels

• Long-term warming (averaged over decades) remains below 1.5°C

• Sea-level rise and ocean warming irreversible for hundreds of years

• Record greenhouse gas concentrations combined with El Niño and other factors to drive 2024 record heat

• Early warnings and climate services are vital to protect communities and economies

WMO’s State of the Global Climate report confirmed that 2024 was likely the first calendar year to be more than 1.5°C above the pre-industrial era, with a global mean near-surface temperature of 1.55 ± 0.13 °C above the 1850-1900 average. This is the warmest year in the 175-year observational record.

WMO’s flagship report showed that:

• Atmospheric concentration of carbon dioxide are at the highest levels in the last 800,000 years.

• Globally each of the past ten years were individually the ten warmest years on record.

• Each of the past eight years has set a new record for ocean heat content.

• The 18 lowest Arctic sea-ice extents on record were all in the past 18 years.

• The three lowest Antarctic ice extents were in the past three years.

• The largest three-year loss of glacier mass on record occurred in the past three years.

• The rate of sea level rise has doubled since satellite measurements began.

“Our planet is issuing more distress signals -- but this report shows that limiting long-term global temperature rise to 1.5 degrees Celsius is still possible. Leaders must step up to make it happen -- seizing the benefits of cheap, clean renewables for their people and economies - - with new National climate plans due this year, ” said United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres.

“While a single year above 1.5 °C of warming does not indicate that the long-term temperature goals of the Paris Agreement are out of reach, it is a wake-up call that we are increasing the risks to our lives, economies and to the planet,” said WMO Secretary-General Celeste Saulo.

Global mean temperature 1850-2024

Difference from 1850-1900 average

Berkeley Earth (1850-2024.12)ERA5 (1940-2024.12)GISTEMP (1880-2024.12)HadCRUT5 (1850-2024.12)JRA-3Q (1947-2024.12)NOAAGlobalTemp v6 (1850-2024.12)

186018801900192019401960198020002020−0.20.00.20.40.60.81.01.21.41.6 °C

Annual global mean temperature anomalies relative to a pre-industrial (1850–1900) baseline shown from 1850 to 2024

Chart: WMOGet the dataEmbed Download imageCreated with Datawrapper

The report said that long-term global warming is currently estimated to be between 1.34 and 1.41 °C compared to the 1850-1900 baseline based on a range of methods – although it noted the uncertainty ranges in global temperature statistics.

A WMO team of international experts is examining this further in order to ensure consistent, reliable tracking of long-term global temperature changes to be aligned with the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC).

Regardless of the methodology used, every fraction of a degree of warming matters and increases risks and costs to society.

The record global temperatures seen in 2023 and broken in 2024 were mainly due to the ongoing rise in greenhouse gas emissions, coupled with a shift from a cooling La Niña to warming El Niño event. Several other factors may have contributed to the unexpectedly unusual temperature jumps, including changes in the solar cycle, a massive volcanic eruption and a decrease in cooling aerosols, according to the report.

Temperatures are just a small part of a much bigger picture.

“Data for 2024 show that our oceans continued to warm, and sea levels continued to rise. The frozen parts of Earth’s surface, known as the cryosphere, are melting at an alarming rate: glaciers continue to retreat, and Antarctic sea ice reached its second-lowest extent ever recorded. Meanwhile, extreme weather continues to have devastating consequences around the world,” said Celeste Saulo.

Tropical cyclones, floods, droughts, and other hazards in 2024 led to the highest number of new displacements recorded for the past 16 years, contributed to worsening food crises, and caused massive economic losses.

“In response, WMO and the global community are intensifying efforts to strengthen early warning systems and climate services to help decision-makers and society at large be more resilient to extreme weather and climate. We are making progress but need to go further and need to go faster. Only half of all countries worldwide have adequate early warning systems. This must change,” said Celeste Saulo.

Investment in weather, water and climate services is more important than ever to meet the challenges and build safer, more resilient communities, she stressed.

The report is based on scientific contributions from National Meteorological and Hydrological Services, WMO Regional Climate Centres, UN partners and dozens of experts. It includes sidebars on monitoring global temperature for the Paris Agreement and understanding the temperature anomalies in 2023 and 2024. It includes supplements on climate services and on extreme weather.

It is one of a suite of WMO scientific reports which seek to inform decision-making. It was published ahead of World Meteorological Day on 23 March, World Water Day on 22 March and World Glaciers Day on 21 March.

Three methods for establishing an up-to-date estimate of current global warming as of 2024, compared with the IPCC AR6 method, which uses averages over the previous 10 years and is representative of warming to 2019. The best estimate resulting from each method is shown as a dark vertical line, and the uncertainty range is shown by the shaded area.

Key Indicators

Atmospheric Carbon Dioxide

Atmospheric concentration of carbon dioxide, as well as methane and nitrous oxide, are at the highest levels in the last 800,000 years.

Carbon dioxide concentrations in 2023 (the last year for which consolidated global annual figures are available) were 420.0 ± 0.1 parts per million (ppm), 2.3 ppm more than 2022 and 151% of the pre-industrial level (in 1750). 420 ppm corresponds to 3,276 Gt  – or 3.276 trillion tonnes of CO₂ in the atmosphere.

Real-time data from specific locations show that levels of these three main greenhouse gases continued to increase in 2024. Carbon dioxide remains in the atmosphere for generations, trapping heat.

Global Mean Near-surface Temperature

In addition to 2024 setting a new record, each of the past ten years, 2015-2024, were individually the ten warmest years on record.

The record temperature in 2024 was boosted by a strong El Niño which peaked at the start of the year. In every month between June 2023 and December 2024, monthly average global temperatures exceeded all monthly records prior to 2023.

Record levels of greenhouse gases were the primary driver, with the shift to El Niño playing a lesser role.

Ocean Heat Content

Around 90% of the energy trapped by greenhouse gases in the Earth system is stored in the ocean.

In 2024, ocean heat content reached its highest level in the 65-year observational record. Each of the past eight years has set a new record. The rate of ocean warming over the past two decades, 2005-2024, is more than twice that in the period 1960-2005.

Ocean warming leads to degradation of marine ecosystems, biodiversity loss, and reduction of the ocean carbon sink. It fuels tropical storms and contributes to sea-level  rise. It is irreversible on centennial to millennial time scales. Climate projections show that ocean warming will continue for at least the rest of the 21st century, even for low carbon emission scenarios.

Ocean Acidification

Acidification of the ocean surface is continuing, as shown by the steady decrease of global average ocean surface pH. The most intense regional decreases are in the Indian Ocean, the Southern Ocean, the eastern equatorial Pacific Ocean, the northern tropical Pacific, and some regions in the Atlantic Ocean.

The effects of ocean acidification on habitat area, biodiversity and ecosystems have already been clearly observed, and food production from shellfish aquaculture and fisheries has been hit as have coral reefs.

Projections show that ocean acidification will continue to increase in the 21st century, at rates dependent on future emissions. Changes in deep-ocean pH are irreversible on centennial to millennial time scales.

Annual global ocean heat content down to 2000 m depth for the period 1960–2024, in zettajoules (1021 J). The shaded area indicates the 2-sigma uncertainty range on each estimate.

Global Mean Sea Level

In 2024, global mean sea level was the highest since the start of the satellite record in 1993 and the rate of increase from 2015-2024 was double that from 1993–2002, increasing from 2.1 mm per year to 4.7 mm per year.

Sea level rise has cascading damaging impacts on coastal ecosystems and infrastructure, with further impacts from flooding and saltwater contamination of groundwater.

Glacier Mass Balance

The period 2022-2024 represents the most negative three-year glacier mass balance on record. Seven of the ten most negative mass balance years since 1950 have occurred since 2016.

Exceptionally negative mass balances were experienced in Norway, Sweden, Svalbard, and the tropical Andes.

Glacier retreat increases short-term hazards, harms economies and ecosystems and long-term water security.

Glacier cumulative mass balance 1950-2024

Change since 1970

WGMS

19501960197019801990200020102020−25−20−15−10−5055.39-27.12

Annual Mountain glacier cumulative mass balance (m w.e., difference from the 1970-1970 average) from 1950-2024.

Chart: WMOSource: WGMSGet the dataDownload imageCreated with Datawrapper

Sea-ice Extent

The 18 lowest Arctic sea-ice minimum extents in the satellite record all occurred in the past 18 years. The annual minimum and maximum of Antarctic sea-ice extent were each the 2nd lowest in the observed record from 1979.

The minimum daily extent of sea-ice in the Arctic in 2024 was 4.28 million km2, the 7th lowest extent in the 46-year satellite record. In Antarctica, the minimum daily extent tied for the 2nd lowest minimum in the satellite era and marked the 3rd consecutive year that minimum Antarctic sea-ice extent dropped below 2 million km2. These are the three lowest Antarctic ice minima in the satellite record.

Extreme events and impacts

Extreme weather events in 2024 led to the highest number of new annual displacements since 2008, and destroyed homes, critical infrastructure, forests, farmland and biodiversity.

The compounded effect of various shocks, such as intensifying conflict, drought and high domestic food prices drove worsening food crises in 18 countries globally by mid-2024.

Tropical cyclones were responsible for many of the highest-impact events of 2024. These included Typhoon Yagi in Viet Nam, the Philippines and southern China.

In the United States, Hurricanes Helene and Milton in October both made landfall on the west coast of Florida as major hurricanes, with economic losses of tens of billions of dollars. Over 200 deaths were associated with the exceptional rainfall and flooding from Helene, the most in a mainland United States hurricane since Katrina in 2005.

Tropical Cyclone Chido caused casualties and economic losses in the French Indian Ocean island of Mayotte, Mozambique and Malawi. It displaced around 100,000 people in Mozambique.

The following was sourced from 1440. on Tuesday, Aug. 5, 2025, by

—Marco Machado, 1440 Science and Technology Editor

Respect and use the links wisely -- recognising materials used.

Climatology

Background

Climatology is the science of climate, or the study of long-term atmospheric conditions across Earth. 

Unlike meteorology, which uses data to predict weather over several days, climate science focuses on identifying patterns across 55 essential climate variables over periods of 30 or more years. 

These patterns help climatologists better understand the interactions between Earth’s systems and refine computational models to predict future phenomena.

History

The word “climate” comes from the Greek term "klima," which refers to the slope or curvature of the Earth. Philosophers in ancient Greece knew the Earth was round and defined regional bands—later called "climata"—based on their latitude.

These philosophers developed the earliest form of climatology—climatic determinism—and argued that where a person lived dictated whether they sought intelligence or subjugation based on how much solar energy they received.

In the 1600s, the field began incorporating numeric data with the inventions of the thermometer and the barometer, which measured air pressure (watch explainer). Other devices were also used, such as anemometers to measure wind speed and hygrometers to measure humidity.

While this data was being collected across continents and elevations, determining the best trade routes for navigators during the early modern era drove the mapping of trade winds, monsoons, and the recurrence of other atmospheric phenomena.

By the 20th century, radar and satellite technologies transformed regional climatology into a global discipline where air, land, sea, and solar data from observation networks were collected in real time (learn more).

Paleoclimatology

Paleoclimatologists use climate proxies—materials that preserve past climate conditions—to obtain climate data from periods before modern instrumentation.

Comparing the results from analyzing these materials with collected data from recent centuries helps calibrate proxies toward accurately determining variables in the distant past.

Tree rings develop in yearly layers as trees grow and reveal precipitation and temperature conditions based on ring thickness.

Ice cores are long columns drilled from glacial ice sheets formed during the accumulation and compaction of thousands of years of winter snowfall. The compaction traps air bubbles that reveal past atmospheric composition, temperature, precipitation, and volcanic activity.

Sediment cores similarly trap information in layers of mud, sand, pollen, and dead animals and plants. Scientists can reconstruct the climate from when the layer formed by finding overlaps in the environmental conditions each organism needed when it was alive.

Speleothems—stalagmites, stalactites, and other rock formations—are formed from mineral deposits left behind by water as it drips into caves, indicating times of drought or heavy rain.

Elemental analysis in these and other proxies, including determining the ratios of different oxygen isotopes, can also provide data on various climate variables (watch explainer).

Modeling

Climate models apply the laws of physics to predict Earth’s climate at different points in time.

The simplest models only use energy balance—radiation received from the sun equals radiation emitted by Earth’s surface—while the most complex, known as general circulation models, incorporate interactions between all of Earth’s systems at high resolutions and can only be solved on supercomputers (watch explainer).

Models are tested via hindcasting—running them from one point in the past with known historical data to see if they reproduce known historical trends—before being run to project future climatic conditions.

These projections can incorporate human activities and forecast their impacts, including climate change, to help inform policy decisions such as mitigation efforts and disaster preparedness in vulnerable regions.

Explore Climatology

The Köppen-Geiger system divides Earth’s climate into five categories

This classification system, developed by a German-Russian botanist and a German climatologist, results from differences in the intensity of solar radiation and rainfall in different parts of the world. Each category is further divided into multiple coded zones, which you can watch a breakdown of here.

El Niño and La Niña are Pacific Ocean climate patterns that affect weather

El Niño causes warm water to move east, disrupting ocean life and bringing wetter conditions to the southern US and drier ones to the north. On the other hand, La Niña strengthens the usual wind patterns, triggering cooler northern winters and more storms in the Pacific Northwest. Learn more about them here.

Explore hindcasting on climate models published since 1972

Hindcasting tests model forecasts against observational data to determine their accuracy. In this interactive, you can learn about the differences between eight climate models and evaluate them against available climate data to mimic the work of climatologists in assessing model accuracy. Try it out here.

Changes in Earth’s orbital cycles influence the timing of ice ages

These cycles include changes in orbit shape (eccentricity), tilt (obliquity), and wobble (precession), all of which alter how much solar energy different parts of Earth receive. They also cause other effects, such as summers in the Northern Hemisphere lasting about 4.5 days longer than winters. Learn more here.

Earth has shifted between warming and cooling phases for 500 million years

Earth is in an interglacial period of the Quaternary glaciation, resulting in receding glaciers and mild temperatures. However, today's warming trend is occurring much faster than previous warming periods in the climate record, driven by greenhouse gases. Watch a brief history of climate change on Earth here.

Simulate the effects of government policies on climate projections

The En-ROADS tool lets you role-play as a global decision-maker to explore the long-term effects of various policy ideas on climate, including modifying existing energy investments and promoting carbon capture technologies. Join the over 130 members of Congress who have already used the simulation here.