World Meteorological Organization warns climate records are being shattered at unprecedented pace

A new report from the World Meteorological Organization (WMO) confirms that oceans are warming faster than ever, greenhouse gas concentrations have reached their highest levels in at least 800,000 years, and the past 11 years rank as the warmest on record, Dagbladet reports.

The annual State of the Global Climate report, released overnight, states that human-induced climate change is intensifying extreme weather events worldwide. Yet climate researchers admit they are struggling to keep pace with the rapid succession of alarming findings.

Erik Kolstad, a climate researcher at NORCE and the Bjerknes Centre for Climate Research, told Dagbladet he was unaware the report had even been published—highlighting what he calls a growing problem: “There are so many reports being released. It’s like inflation—they’re competing with each other.”

“This is actually very shocking,” Kolstad added after reviewing the findings. He questioned how the scientific community can effectively communicate the urgency when each new report demands attention with exclamation marks, yet risks being dismissed as repetitive.

Warnings dismissed as familiar

Kolstad pointed to persistent warnings about the potential collapse of the Gulf Stream, a scenario frequently covered in Norwegian media for years. “It’s incredibly critical,” he said, noting that such risks have been forecast since the 1980s. “Now we’re in those decades, and we’re seeing the effects—but people have heard it before and think, ‘Well, it hasn’t really affected me yet.’”

He compared the challenge to the 2021 film Don’t Look Up, where scientists struggle to convey the threat of an approaching comet amid political indifference. “It resonates. Maybe the issue is so vast that people can’t fully grasp it,” Kolstad said.

Climate change amplifies—but rarely causes—extreme events

While the WMO report states that human-induced climate change is influencing extreme weather globally, Kolstad cautioned against attributing individual events solely to climate change. “We can never definitively say something happened only because of climate change,” he explained.

For example, Storm Hans—one of Norway’s costliest natural disasters—could have occurred without climate change, but its likelihood was significantly higher due to warming. Some organizations, like World Weather Attribution (WWA), specialize in calculating how much climate change increases the probability of extreme events.

Last summer’s record-breaking heatwave in Trøndelag, where Grong recorded 14 consecutive days above 30°C (smashing a 1982 record), was found to be 2°C hotter due to climate change. Without that warming, the region would have had only four tropical days in a row.