Latest World Meteorological Organization Stories
By Robert EvansGENEVA -- Greenhouse gases blamed for global warming and climate change have reached their highest ever levels in the atmosphere, the World Meteorological Organization (WMO) said on Tuesday.A bulletin from the United Nations agency said the gases -- the main warming culprit carbon dioxide (CO2), methane and nitrous oxide -- "all reached new highs in 2004."WMO officials also indicated that a near record year-on-year rise in CO2 levels for 2005 recorded by U.S. monitors...
GENEVA (Reuters) - Cool sea surface temperatures in the central and eastern Pacific point to a La Nina phenomenon, but it is too early to predict the impact on global weather, the World Meteorological Organization (WMO) said on Friday. The phenomenon was also not expected to last long, the U.N. agency said in a statement. Combined with other oceanic and atmospheric conditions, the temperatures were "consistent with the early stages of a basin-wide La Nina event," the WMO said. But the...
NEW YORK -- In the high Arctic, deep in the Atlantic, on Africa's sunbaked plains, climate scientists are seeing change unfold before their eyes. In the global councils of power, however, change in climate policy is coming only slowly.In Geneva on Thursday, the World Meteorological Organization (WMO) reported that 2005 thus far is the second warmest year on record, extending a trend climatologists attribute at least partly to heat-trapping "greenhouse gases" accumulating in the...
By Robert EvansGENEVA -- Catastrophic storms like Hurricanes Katrina and Stan took weather extremes to new levels in 2005, with flooding and heatwaves touching almost every continent, the United Nations weather body WMO said on Thursday.But in an annual review, WMO Secretary-General Michel Jarraud said that while high temperatures and heavy rains could probably be linked to global warming, this phenomenon could not yet be firmly blamed for the summer's Caribbean hurricanes."This year is...
By Alister Doyle, Environment CorrespondentHARSTAD, Norway (Reuters) - Life is harsh on the freezing tundra of the Arctic Circle where Anna Prakhova lives. But it can be much harder when snows do not fall.In recent years, snows have failed to fall as normal across large parts of the barren land dotted with low birch and pines."We are experiencing the reality of climate change," Prakhova, who leads a group representing indigenous people in Russia and the Nordic nations, said on a...
By Alister Doyle, Environment CorrespondentHARSTAD, Norway -- Life is harsh on the freezing tundra of the Arctic Circle where Anna Prakhova lives. But it can be much harder when snows do not fall.In recent years, snows have failed to fall as normal across large parts of the barren land dotted with low birch and pines."We are experiencing the reality of climate change," Prakhova, who leads a group representing indigenous people in Russia and the Nordic nations, said on a snow-free...
GENEVA (Reuters) - The winter hole in the ozone layer above Antarctica appears to have grown from last year but is still smaller than in 2003, when it was at its largest, the World Meteorological Organization (WMO) said on Tuesday. The UN agency's top ozone expert added that seasonal depletion of the protective gas layer, which filters harmful ultraviolet rays that can cause skin cancer, may become more pronounced in the near future before the problem diminishes. Large reductions in...
GENEVA -- The winter hole in the ozone layer above Antarctica appears to have grown from last year but is still smaller than in 2003, when it was at its largest, the World Meteorological Organization (WMO) said on Tuesday.The UN agency's top ozone expert added that seasonal depletion of the protective gas layer, which filters harmful ultraviolet rays that can cause skin cancer, may become more pronounced in the near future before the problem diminishes.Large reductions in the ozone layer,...
BUENOS AIRES, Argentina (AP) -- The year 2004, punctuated by four powerful hurricanes in the Caribbean and deadly typhoons lashing Asia, was the fourth-hottest on record, extending a trend since 1990 that has registered the 10 warmest years, a U.N. weather agency said Wednesday. The current year was also the most expensive for the insurance industry in coping worldwide with hurricanes, typhoons and other weather-related natural disasters, according to new figures released by U.N....
