This year is set to become the tenth hottest on record across the globe. But temperatures would have been even higher had the Pacific not cooled, a phenomenon known as La Niña.

The Middle East was exceptionally cold in January, with rare snowfalls in Baghdad and Saudi Arabia, as cold air swept down from Siberia. And snowstorms paralysed central China in one of its harshest winters on record. Southern Australia suffered continued intense heat and drought, hitting its important agricultural regions particularly hard. Scandinavia had a remarkably mild winter, with record high average temperatures in Sweden, and the Baltic region had its lowest levels of ice since records began more than a century ago.

The worst natural disaster of the year struck Burma on May 2, when Cyclone Nargis drove a 3.6m (12ft) storm surge 40km (25 miles) deep inland. The floods caused colossal death and destruction — the death toll was estimated at 130,000 but the true figure may never be known. During the last week of July, Iceland sweltered in a rare heatwave, breaking Reykjavik’s highest temperature record with 25.7C (78.3F). The Indian monsoon set off floods that claimed 2,400 lives. In the north, heavy rains caused the Koshi river to break out, flooding a vast swath of Bihar state.

Hurricane Ike was the worst hurricane of 2008 when it struck in September. It was the largest Atlantic hurricane on record, caused 164 deaths and did immense damage in Haiti and Cuba before hitting Texas. The total cost was estimated at more than $30 billion.

The annual Arctic ice melt reached its second highest extent, as the region experiences a faster rate of warming than the rest of the world.