The risk of the El Niño-induced food insecurity in southern Africa in 2016; the recent risk of famine in northern Kenya, Somalia, Ethiopia, and South Sudan; and the recent outbreak of the fall armyworm (FAW) in East and Southern Africa (ESA) all demonstrate that responses are still largely reactive than proactive.

Last year’s record global average temperatures, extreme heat over Asia, and unusually warm waters in the Bering Sea would not have been possible without human-caused climate change, according to a new report published in the Bulletin of the American Meteorological Society (BAMS).

This paper shares key lessons on the use of weather forecasting, learned from the 2016–2017 drought across the Horn of Africa that contributed to failed harvests, extensive livestock deaths and food insecurity.

Year 2017 will be one of the three hottest years on record, with many high-impact events, including catastrophic hurricanes and floods, debilitating heat waves and drought, says this provisional statement on the State of the Climate released by the World Meteorological Organization (WMO).