End-Time Weather

GENEVA (AP) — Floods in Asia, a cyclone in the Middle East and extreme temperatures around the globe since the start of the year have borne out warnings made by a key climate change report, an expert with the U.N. weather agency said Tuesday. The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change released its fourth report, warning that global warming would increase the number of extreme weather events and cause more natural disasters, which will hit the poor hardest.

Global surface temperatures in January — when Europe experienced an unusually mild winter — were the highest since records began. According to data compiled by WMO measurements were 3.4 degrees Fahrenheit above the 127-year average. The Geneva-based agency said April temperatures around the world rose 2.46 degrees Fahrenheit above the historical average since 1880. Record storms, floods and heat waves have since occurred in Africa, Asia, Europe and South America.

• JJ Commentary: Global warming and extreme weather are end-time phenomena, literal signs of the times. Whether human or nature caused is irrelevant, and there’s nothing we can do to stop it.