© NASA
High-resolution satellite image of Hurricane Katrina on August 26, 2005 from the NASA Aqua satellite.
For the first time in its history, the World Meteorological Organization has released world records of the human toll from extreme weather events.
In a press release sent to weather.com Thursday, WMO says it is releasing world records for the highest reported historical death tolls from tropical cyclones, tornadoes, lightning and hailstorms. Previously, the official WMO Archive of Weather and Climate Extremes kept only temperature and weather records to address the impacts of specific events.
Randy Cerveny, Arizona State University professor of geographical science and urban planning, is the chief Rapporteur of Climate and Weather Extremes for WMO. In other words, Cerveny is the "keeper of the world's weather extremes."
"In today's world, it seems like the latest weather disaster is the worst," Cerveny said. "Knowing exactly how bad various types of weather have been in the past has been an integral part of preparing for the future."
Cerveny said you often hear that a storm like Hurricane Katrina, which barreled through the Bahamas before devastating the U.S. Gulf Coast in 2005, was the deadliest tropical cyclone/hurricane to have ever occurred.
"While Katrina was bad — more than 2,000 died — it pales in comparison to the tropical cyclone that hit the area of present-day Bangladesh in 1970, that killed an estimated 300,000 people," Cerveny said. "This type of extreme (mortality totals) provides a very useful set of baseline numbers against which future disasters can be compared."
WMO Secretary-General Petteri Taalas said this type of record-keeping is important because "extreme weather causes serious destruction and major loss of life."
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