Storms, floods, heat waves and more… These dramatic climate events have been drawing our attention frequently for several decades now. They seem to be unique in human memory, but are they really, when placed within a longer-terms perspective? Are they happening more frequently or more intensely than they used to? Is every region on the planet equally affected? Can we explain them? Predict them? Prevent them? To what extent can we say that human activity is responsible for them? And in what way are they related to climate change?

There are no simple answers to those questions: although global warming can no longer be denied, recurrent extreme climate events are still cause for tremendous debate within the scientific community. From Lothar, the storm that wreaked havoc across a wide swath of France in 1999 to the deadly European heat wave of 2003, via Hurricane Katrina, which devastated New Orleans in 2005 and the typhoon Hayian, which flattened the Philippines in 2013, the author provides keys for understanding extreme climate events…

Hard to predict, tricky to prevent, extreme climate events are signs of a global phenomenon: climate change. This book was written as a wake-up call for both politicians and society at large, reminding us of that recognizing and dealing with the problem is our only hope to protect our planet and envisage a better future.