Southeast Europe and Middle East - Widespread heat wave, July-August 2000. Temperatures reached as high as 111°F (43.8°C) in locations across Turkey, Greece, Romania, Italy, and Bulgaria. In Bulgaria, 100-year records for daily maximum temperature were broken at more than 75% of the observing stations on July 5th. For Armenia, 2000 was the hottest summer of the century. Jordan reported the longest stretch of summer heat in its 77-year record (NCDC, 2000; WMO, 2000; WMO, 2001). Continental Europe warmed 1.4°F (0.8°C) during the past century, with the last decade being the warmest on record (IPCC, 2001b).

Tornionjoki River, Finland - Earlier ice break-up. Spring ice breakup now comes about 7 days earlier compared to a century ago. Thirty-eight of 39 records of ice cover from throughout the Northern Hemisphere show a trend toward earlier spring ice breakup and later winter freezing between 1846 and 1995 (Magnuson et al., 2000). This shift corresponds with surface air temperature measurements showing the largest rates of warming since 1976 over the mid- and high latitude continental regions of the Northern Hemisphere (IPCC, 2001a).

United Kingdom - Birds extend northern ranges. A comparison of the breeding distributions of birds for two time periods, 1968-72 and 1988-91, showed that the northern margins for many species had moved northwards by an average of about 12 miles (19 km) (Thomas and Lennon, 1999). The range shift occurred during a period when central England°s temperature warmed by about 0.9°F (0.5°C) over the last century, and the 10-year period 1988-1997 was the warmest such period in the record (Hulme, 1999).

World Ocean - Worldwide ocean warming. The world ocean has experienced a net warming of 0.11°F (0.06°C) from the sea surface to a depth of 10,000 feet (3000 m) over the past 35-45 years. More than half of the increase in heat content has occurred in the upper 1000 feet (300 m), which has warmed by 0.56°F (0.31°C). Warming is occurring in all ocean basins and at much deeper depths than previously thought (Levitus et al., 2000). These findings lend support to the hypothesis that the oceans are taking up excess heat as the atmosphere warms, and would account for the apparent discrepancy in the magnitude of the observed atmospheric warming as compared to climate model predictions.

Chokoria Sundarbans, Bangladesh - Flooded mangroves. Rising ocean levels have flooded about 18,500 acres (7,500 hectares) of mangrove forest during the past three decades (Huq et al., 1999). Global sea-level rise is aggravated by substantial deltaic subsidence in the area with rates as high as 0.22 inches (5.5 mm) per year (Huq et al., 1995).

Mount Kilimanjaro, Tanzania - Ice projected to disappear by 2020. 82% of Kilimanjaro’s ice has disappeared since 1912, with about one-third melting in just the last dozen years. At this rate, all of the ice will be gone in about 15 years (OSU, 2001). Scientists hypothesize that less snow on the mountain during the rainy season decreases the surface reflectiveness, leading to higher rates of absorption of heat and increased ice melt (Hardy, 2002).

Kenya - Worst drought in 60 years, 2001. Over four million people were affected by a severely reduced harvest, weakened livestock, and poor sanitary conditions (USAID, 2001).

Galapagos, Ecuador - Coral reef bleaching, March/April 2002. Sea-surface temperatures rose above 81°F (27.5 °C) several times, causing repeated coral bleaching events (NOAA-NESDIS, 2002). Repeated and prolonged bleaching episodes - expected as tropical water temperatures warm with climate change - eventually kill corals and cause a decline in associated marine species.

Antarctic Peninsula - Collapsing ice shelf, January-February 2002. The northern section of the Larsen B ice shelf, an area of 1,250 square miles (3,250 km²), disintegrated in a period of 35 days. This was the largest collapse event of the last 30 years, bringing the total loss of ice extent from seven ice shelves to 6,760 square miles (17,500 km²) since 1974. The ice retreat is attributed to the region°s strong warming trend - 4.5°F (2.5°C) in the last 50 years (NSIDC, 2002).

Facts gathered from:

http://www.climatehotmap.org/newpoints.html