World Meteorological Day 2026
Today, March 23 2026, is World Meteorological Day and Earth is being ‘pushed beyond its limits’ according to the World Meteorological Organization (WMO).
The WMO published its State of the Global Climate 2025 report today. It has 5 key messages.
“2015-2025 were the hottest 11-years on record”
“2025 was the second or third hottest year on record, at about 1.43 °C above the 1850-1900 average.”
“Earth’s energy imbalance is highest in sixty five-year record”
There were major weather extremes, and 2026 is proving to be more of the same. America is experiencing some now - floods in Hawaii, a heat dome, and freezing weather. But the White House is not only showing no interest, it is actively adopting policies that will make the situation worse.
And that’s before waging war against Iran, causing 5m tonnes of CO2 to be emitted in the first 14 days alone. But this is “very likely a dramatic underestimate of the negative effects of war on the global climate crisis”, according to Johan Rockström, director of the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research.
“The ocean has been absorbing about eighteen times the annual human energy use each year for the past two decades”
“The ocean continues to warm and absorb carbon dioxide. It has been absorbing the equivalent of about eighteen times the annual human energy use each year for the past two decades. Annual sea ice extent in the Arctic was at or near a record low, Antarctic sea ice extent was the third lowest on record, and glacier melt continued unabated”
The warming of the ocean is the main cause of Antarctic ice loss. Since ice reflects more of the sun’s rays than the sea, loss of ice means more ocean warming. This is affecting the Atlantic Meridional Overturning Circulation (AMOC), causing it to slow down. If it stops, Britain and other countries will freeze. They are warmer than countries at the same latitude because the Gulf stream, which is part of the AMOC, brings warm water. Antarctica’s ‘Doomsday Glacier’ the Thwaites Glacier, is melting even faster than feared. It has already contributed to a 4% rise in global sea levels - that would be 2 feet if it melted completely. Then the glaciers on land behind it could slide down to the sea and melt and add a further 10 feet.
“Extreme weather impacts millions and costs billions”
In December 2024 Insure Our Future wrote, “climate change accounts for an estimated $600 billion, or over a third, of global insured weather losses over the last two decades... Climate-attributed losses rose from 31% to 38% of total insured weather losses over the last decade on average, outpacing them 6.5% to 4.9% in terms of annual growth”. Now that 100-year floods and storms occur far more frequently, some homeowners cannot get insurance at all.
In the EU27 between 1980 and 2021 only 25–33% was insured. were insured. Climate action is the world’s cheapest insurance policy. At the same, getting off fossil fuels would end wars for them, so it’s the cheapest form of defense, too.
“World Meteorological Day: observing today to protect tomorrow”
The report tells it as it is (it is not in the business of meteorological forecasting) - it promotes international cooperation on atmospheric science, climatology, hydrology and geophysics. And if one thing is clear, it is that we need to act now.