This is the actual text of the Press Release:

http://www.wmo.ch/index-en.html

For use of the information media - WMO-No 695
Not an official record

ACCORDING TO THE WORLD METEOROLOGICAL ORGANIZATION,

EXTREME WEATHER EVENTS MIGHT INCREASE


Geneva, 2 July 2003 - Record extremes in weather and climate events
continue to occur around the world. Recent scientific assessments
indicate that, as the global temperatures continue to warm due to
climate change, the number and intensity of extreme events might
increase, the World Meteorological Organization (WMO) states in a
press release issued today.

In June, record high temperatures were recorded across southern
France, with maximum temperatures exceeding 40°C in parts of southwest
France. This resulted in June average temperatures of 5 to 7°C above
the long-term average. In Switzerland, the month of June was the
hottest in at least the past 250 years, according to environmental
historians. In Geneva, since 29 May, maximum daytime temperatures did
not drop below 25°C, making June the hottest June on record for the
city.

In the United States, there were 562 tornados during May, which
resulted in 41 deaths. This established a record for the number of
tornados in any month. The previous monthly record was 399 tornados
in June 1992. In the eastern and southeastern part of the US, wet and
cold conditions prevailed for well over a month. Weekly negative
temperature anomalies of –2°C to –6°C were experienced in May while
precipitation excesses, ranging from 50 mm to 350 mm over a period of
more than 12 weeks starting in March 2003, have been recorded.

In India, this year's pre-monsoon heat wave brought peak temperatures
of between 45°C and 49°C which correspond to weekly temperature
departures from the normal of +2 to +5°C. At least 1400 people died
in India due to the hot weather. In Sri Lanka, heavy rainfalls from
Tropical Cyclone 01B exacerbated already wet conditions, resulting in
flooding and landslides and killing at least 300 people. The
infrastructure and economy of southwestern Sri Lanka was heavily
damaged. A reduction of 20-30% is expected for the output of
low-grown tea in the next three months.

These record extreme events (high temperatures, low temperatures and
high rainfall amounts and droughts) all go into calculating the
monthly and annual averages which, for temperatures, have been
gradually increasing over the past 100 years. New record extreme
events occur every year somewhere in the globe, but in recent years
the number of such extremes have been increasing. According to recent
climate change scientific assessment reports of the joint WMO/UNEP
Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), the global average
surface temperature has increased since 1861. Over the 20th century
the increase has been around 0.6°C. This value is about 0.15°C larger
than that estimated by the previous reports. New analyses of proxy
data for the Northern Hemisphere indicate that the increase in
temperature in the 20th century is likely to have been the largest in
any century during the past 1000 years. It is also likely that, in
the Northern Hemisphere, the 1990s were the warmest decade and 1998
the warmest year. While the trend towards warmer globally averaged
surface temperatures has been uneven over the course of the last
century, the trend for the period since 1976 is roughly three times
that for the past 100 years as a whole. Global average land and sea
surface temperatures in May 2003 were the second highest since records
began in 1880. Considering land temperatures only, last May was the
warmest on record.

The influence of El Niño and La Niña on these extreme events is in
general undefined. The World Meteorological Organization (WMO) and
its Members, the National Meteorological and Hydrological Services
along with various research institutes, will continue to organize
research and document the influence of El Niño and other large scale
climate phenomena on climate extreme events.

***********

For more information please contact:
Ms Carine Richard-Van Maele
Chief, Information and Public Affairs
World Meteorological Organization
Tel: +41 (0) 22 730 83 14/5
Fax:+41 (0) 22 730 80 27
E-mail: ipa@gateway.wmo.ch
Internet website: http://www.wmo.ch

"Psalm 110" <Melchizedek@USA.com> wrote in message
news:2275a3c5.0307041915.94e0897@posting.google.co m...
> This is the actual text of the Press Release:
>
> http://www.wmo.ch/index-en.html
>
> For use of the information media - WMO-No 695
> Not an official record
>
> ACCORDING TO THE WORLD METEOROLOGICAL ORGANIZATION,
>
> EXTREME WEATHER EVENTS MIGHT INCREASE
>
>

Exactly. And martians might attack any day now. How bogus can you get?