As temperatures plummet across the country this week, it'simportant to remember that extreme weather and climate events—suchas drought, heavy rain and heat waves—are a natural part of theEarth's climate system. Nonetheless, as the National Oceanic andAtmospheric Administration notes, extreme weather and climateevents can have significant impacts on our lives and on theenvironment.

“In a non-changing climate, society and the environment are morelikely to be resilient to weather and climate extremes as theyacclimate to the historical range of extremes,” the NOAA states onits website. “However, as the climate changes these extremes mayoccur outside the historical range, resulting in societal andenvironmental vulnerabilities.”

The NOAA's Global Analysisreport for 2013 includes a Global Significant Weather andClimate Events world map illustrating some of Earth's most radicalweather events last year.

Click on the image to go directly to themap.

Among the NOAA's findings:

• 2013 ties with 2003 as the fourth warmest year globally sincerecords began in 1880. The annual global combined land and oceansurface temperature was 0.62°C (1.12°F) above the 20^thcentury average of 13.9°C (57.0°F), marking the 37^thconsecutive year (since 1976) that the yearly global temperaturewas above average.
• Extreme precipitation in Europe's Alpine region and in Germany,Poland, Czech Republic, Austria, and Switzerland caused the mostintense and extended flooding in Danube and Elbe river catchmentssince at least 1950 as more than 15.7 inches of rain fell in somelocalized areas on May 29-June 3, an event with a return period ofmore than 100 years. Austria observed its wettest May-June sincenational records began in 1858. Some rivers reached historicalrecord heights. Passau/SE-Germany saw its highest water level since1501. Twenty-five people were killed in Germany, Austria, and theCzech Republic as a result of the floods.
• The Southwest Asian monsoon season had an early onset of June16 and brought the worst flooding and devastation in the past halfcentury to regions near the India-Nepal border. Twenty districts inNepal and several districts in the Indian states of Uttarakhand,Himachal Pradesh, and Uttar Pradesh were affected. The monsoonarrived 15 days early in Uttarakhand, with constant rain over afour-day period. Northwest India received nearly double its averageJune rainfall. Thousands of people were killed.
• In northeast Asia, from the end of July to mid-August 2013,unusually heavy rain fell near the Amur River, which marks theborder between China and Russia. The river reached a record 329.9feet, surpassing the previous record set in 1984, as heavy floodinghit parts of the region. The Songhuajiang and Liaohe River Basinsin northeast China saw their heaviest floods since 1998. Heavyflooding was also reported in eastern Russia, where more than 140towns were affected by their worst flooding in 120 years. In Chinathere were direct economic losses of about $1.8 billion US dollarsand more than 100 fatalities. In the Amur region of Russia,economic losses were estimated at $500 million U.S. dollars.
• Following its biggest snowfall event in the past 50 years inNovember 2012, by early February, Moscow had already recorded itsheaviest winter snowfall accumulation in more than a century, with216 cm (85 inches) of snow compared to the average of 152 cm (60inches). March brought an additional 71 cm (28 inches), the highesttotal for the month in more than 20 years.

Certain weather and climate extremes are expected to become morefrequent during the 21^st century, the NOAA says, citingthe Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) FourthAssessment Report from 2007. Monitoring and analyzing climateextremes is a critical component of assessing the climate systemand has received a great deal of attention from insurers in recentyears, particularly because the impacts of climate-related changescan vary among regions.