WMO statement on the status of the global climate in 2009

This annual survey on weather and climate change provides evidence that the period, 2000–2009, was the warmest decade on record, since the beginning of modern instrumental measurements around 1850, and reports on a number of extreme weather and climate events in 2009, including: heat waves in China, India and southern Europe, as well as in Australia; severe droughts, intense storms and flooding in different parts of the world; and cold waves in the northern hemisphere, with heavy snowfall in Europe, North America and northern Asia.