THE year 2021 saw many countries experiencing exceptional weather extremes. Temperatures reached 500C in Western Canada and the US; record high temperatures were seen in many parts of the Mediterranean; a month’s worth of rain falling over just a few days led to floods in Europe and China; India experienced long dry spells and heavy rain during the summer and now the winter monsoon; for the first time rain instead of snow fell on the Greenland ice sheet; there was a second year of drought in South America; forest fires raged in many parts of the world including in Siberia because of exceptionally high temperatures. – Reproduced