des on January 18. Winds of up to 133 miles per hour swept off the Atlantic and ripped across the continent all the way into Russia, leaving a swath of destruction.

The storm killed at least 47 people, and left hundreds of thousands of homes without power, including a million people in the Czech Republic alone. Airports across the continent cancelled flights and battened down the hatches, leaving tens of thousands stranded.

The German federation of insurers said the storm, the worst in 30 years, had caused around a billion euros’ worth of damage in Germany alone. For the first time in its history, the Deutsche Bahn railway company suspended all services across Germany. Off the coast of Britain, 30-foot waves wrecked the msc Napoli, causing her to spill her cargo of bmw motorbikes, wine barrels, carpets and more—delighting English scavengers. Russian oil deliveries to the European Union were suspended after a Ukrainian pumping station lost power due to the high winds.

Climate researchers blame the disaster on “unusually high temperatures in the North Atlantic—0.5 to 1 degree Celsius (around 1 to 2 degrees Fahrenheit) above normal,” which allowed “winds to accumulate more moisture and surge in energy” (Associated Press, January 19).

But as severe as this storm was, the past year has provided a whole host of unusually devastating weather worldwide.

In China, weather disasters during 2006 claimed 2,704 lives and cost approximately $27 billion in economic losses. Typhoon Saomai, the strongest typhoon to hit the People’s Republic of China since its founding, killed approximately 460 people. Meanwhile, as the coast was being flooded, inland China experienced 18 sandstorms and northwestern China is going through the worst drought in a century, leaving more than 17 million people with drinking water shortages. Compounding the drought problem, northern China experienced its worst acid rain in 14 years this past summer, and 80 percent of Beijing’s rain days were “acid rain days” (Xinhua General News Service, January 28). Chinese officials characterized the extreme weather as being “rare” in the country’s history.

Further south, Jahor, Malaysia, experienced its worst floods ever, after receiving the heaviest rainfall in 100 years. In Malaysia the weather has become so unpredictable that a government-commissioned report said the “weather was undergoing a metamorphosis” (New Straits Times, January 15). The report warned Malaysians to be prepared for more extreme occurrences.

Still further south, Australia remains in the middle of the third-worst drought in history, its worst in a century. In many regions, some farmers are losing hope; one anti-depression agency says that on average, one male farmer in Australia commits suicide every four days.

Tasmania was a freak show last year: Every month but September saw a long-term monthly rainfall or temperature record broken. May saw the lowest temperature for the month ever recorded. June experienced the lowest total rainfall. October set records for the hottest day, coldest night, warmest night and lowest rainfall.

In America, regular rainfall is becoming an increasingly rare phenomenon in many parts of the country. This past summer, over 60 percent of America languished in abnormally dry conditions or drought. At the same time, record heat scorched the nation, with periodic surges of fierce and damaging triple-digit temperatures. Making matters worse, competition for surface water has heated up as groundwater levels in many drought-affected areas have been drawn down.

2006 also saw the highest average temperature in the United Kingdom since records began in 1914.

During 2005, the Arctic lost 14 percent of its perennial sea ice—the melt rate was 18 times greater than the average of the past several decades. Some scientists claim that it was the warmest summer in 400 years. According to nasa, the Arctic Ocean has lost about 20 percent of its sea ice since the 1970s, an area twice the size of Texas. (Click on these nasa links to compare satellite images of the arctic ice cap in 1981 and 2005.)

If current melt rates continue, it is speculated that Canada’s Northwest Passage could be open for year-around commercial traffic in as little as 15 years. That’s good news for merchants (since it nearly cuts in half the distance by ship between Tokyo and London), but not so good if you are a polar bear.

What in the world is up with the weather?

Many climatologists admit that they just don’t know. Meteorologists have trouble predicting the weather in the short term, let alone in the long run.