Weather Wise
Your support helps us to tell the story
From reproductive rights to climate change to Big Tech, The Independent is on the ground when the story is developing. Whether it's investigating the financials of Elon Musk's pro-Trump PAC or producing our latest documentary, 'The A Word', which shines a light on the American women fighting for reproductive rights, we know how important it is to parse out the facts from the messaging.
At such a critical moment in US history, we need reporters on the ground. Your donation allows us to keep sending journalists to speak to both sides of the story.
The Independent is trusted by Americans across the entire political spectrum. And unlike many other quality news outlets, we choose not to lock Americans out of our reporting and analysis with paywalls. We believe quality journalism should be available to everyone, paid for by those who can afford it.
Your support makes all the difference.This will be the last of our new-look weather pages before the new year, which gives a good opportunity to look back on what an eventful weather year it has been.
El Nino has fully lived up to its advance publicity. They called it "the climate event of the century" and in terms of both damage and unpredictability it has merited that description. There was drought followed by floods in South America, fires in Indonesia causing smog in Malaysia, destructive bush fires in Australia, and then - most unexpectedly - the first snow this century in some parts of Mexico. When El Nino gets going, nobody seems to be able to predict what might happen.
The economic cost, however, will be greater than the environmental damage, but the biggest potential item on the bill will only be added when El Nino reaches the United States next month.
In July, eastern and central Europe suffered the worst floods in living memory, costing more than 100 lives in Poland and the Czech Republic. Nobody seems to know whether this was connected with El Nino.
Finally, there was the Kyoto conference on global warming, "a vital turning point", as Al Gore called it, in man's fight against his own pollution. Yet the final agreement was so diluted - and still faces ratification by a hostile US Senate - that from most perspectives it looks more like a gentle bend in the road than a vital turning point.
Join our commenting forum
Join thought-provoking conversations, follow other Independent readers and see their replies
Comments