Chapter 6 – Weather Extremes

In recent years, media and scientific journals have given increasing attention to worldwide extreme weather (EW) events and their possible relation to climate change and to specifically model proposed warming of the earth's climate. This warming, which has been linked to human CO2 emissions, has been referred to by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) as anthropogenic global warming (AGW). A brief overview of the ongoing debate is presented, synthesizing worldwide EW events of last decades and analyzing the possible linkage between EW and AGW. Data show that the postulated AGW/EW link is a perception rather than reality, the perception being fostered by increased and uncritical media attention to recent EW events.