The extraordinary sequence of extreme weather events during the last 18 months is probably the worst run of natural disasters since 1816, when a huge volcanic eruption at Mt Tambora cooled the earth enough to cause the famous “year without a summer“, according to a powerful blog post by Weather Underground founder Jeff Masters. He runs through the list, giving details of each:
- Earth’s hottest year on record
- Most extreme winter Arctic atmospheric circulation on record
- Arctic sea ice: lowest volume on record, 3rd lowest extent
- Record melting in Greenland, and a massive calving event
- Second most extreme shift from El Niño to La Niña
- Second worst coral bleaching year
- Wettest year over land
- Amazon rainforest experiences its 2nd 100-year drought in 5 years
- Global tropical cyclone activity lowest on record
- A hyperactive Atlantic hurricane season: 3rd busiest on record
- A rare tropical storm in the South Atlantic
- Strongest storm in Southwestern U.S. history
- Strongest non-coastal storm in U.S. history
- Weakest and latest-ending East Asian monsoon on record
- No monsoon depressions in India’s Southwest Monsoon for 2nd time in 134 years
- The Pakistani flood: most expensive natural disaster in Pakistan’s history
- The Russian heat wave and drought: deadliest heat wave in human history
- Record rains trigger Australia’s most expensive natural disaster in history
- Heaviest rains on record trigger Colombia’s worst flooding disaster in history
- Tennessee’s 1-in-1000 year flood kills 30, does $2.4 billion in damage
