Top Ten Global Weather Events of 2012

[phantom power]

Brief discussion and photos of each event through the link

It was another year of incredible weather extremes globally during 2012. The year featured two of the most expensive weather disasters in world history--Hurricane Sandy and the Great U.S. Drought of 2012, which will both cost more than $50 billion. Thankfully, no disasters had a death toll in excess of 2,000, though the 1,901 people dead or missing due to Super Typhoon Bopha in the Philippines may rank as that nation's 2nd deadliest typhoon ever. Twenty-six weather disasters costing at least $1 billion occurred globally, according to insurance broker AON Benfield. Eleven billion-dollar weather disasters hit the U.S., a figure exceeded only by the fourteen such disasters in 2011. Nine billion-dollar weather disasters hit China, their highest total in a decade of record-keeping. I present for you, now, the top ten global weather stories of 2012, chosen for their meteorological significance and human and economic impact:

1) New Record Minimum for Arctic Sea Ice (September 16)
2) Agricultural Drought in the U.S., Europe, and Asia (Summer)
3) Superstorm Sandy (October 29)
4) Greenland Ice Sheet melt and Glacier Calving (July)
5) Super Typhoon Bopha (December 3 - 4)
6) Northern Hemisphere Warmth (throughout 2012)
7) Eurasian Continent Cold Wave (January 24 - February 17)
8) China Floods (July 21 - 22)
9) Pakistan Floods (August 21 - September 30)
10) African Floods (July - October)

http://www.wunderground.com/blog/JeffMasters/comment.html?entrynum=2326

[progressoid]

1. Seems like a lot of U.S. and China on there.