The amount of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere reached a new record high in 2013, propelled by a surge in levels of carbon dioxide.

Every year, disasters related to weather, climate and water hazards cause significant loss of life and set back economic and social development by years, if not decades From 1970 to 2012, 8 835 disasters, 1 94 million deaths and US$ 2 4 trillion of economic losses were reported globally as a result of droughts, floods, windstorms, tropical cyclo

The National Drought Management Policy Guidelines provide a template for action that countries can use in the development of a national drought management policy and drought preparedness/mitigation plans.

This WMO Statement on the Status of the Global Climate in 2013 provides a snapshot of global and regional trends in weather and climate over the past year and highlights some of the year’s most significant extreme events.

The year 2013 is currently on course to be among the top ten warmest years since modern records began in 1850, according to this WMO provisional statement on status of the climate.

The atmospheric increase of CO2 from 2011 to 2012 was higher than its average growth rate over the past ten years, according to this latest edition of the annual Greenhouse Gas Bulletin puiblished by World Meteorological Organization.

The world experienced unprecedented high-impact climate extremes during the 2001-2010 decade, which was the warmest since the start of modern measurements in 1850 and continued an extended period of pronounced global warming.

2012 joined the ten previous years as one of the warmest — at ninth place — on record despite the cooling influence of a La Niña episode early in the year acording to this WMO statement on the status of the global climate.

This WMO information note is the first in a series that will aim to make the science underlying the weather, climate and water issues addressed by the World Meteorological Organization (WMO) more easily accessible to the general public.