Geneva: The World Meteorological Organisation said last year's weather was actually as bad as it appeared when people were struggling through it after months of analysis of the weather in 2022.

And that's about as bad as it gets until the climate continues to warm.

Killer heat waves, droughts, and floods have cost billions of dollars worldwide. According to the State of Global Climate 2022 report from the United Nations climate agency, which was released on Friday, Antarctic sea ice and European Alps glaciers both reached record low levels and global ocean heat and acidity levels reached record highs.

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Global sea level and heat-trapping carbon dioxide and methane levels reached their highest levels ever observed in recorded history, despite levels having been higher before the advent of human civilization. 

According to the report, the major glaciers that scientists use as a barometer for the health of the planet shrank by more than 1.3 metres (51 inches) in just one year, and for the first time in recorded history, no snow on Switzerland's glaciers survived the summer melt season.

WMO Secretary-General Petteri Taalas stated at a news conference that the rate of sea level rise today is roughly twice that of the 1990s. By the end of the century, the oceans could rise by another 50 to 100 cm (20 to 39 inches) as more ice melts from glaciers and ice sheets.

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Despite efforts to reduce emissions of heat-trapping gases due to the pollution already released, Taalas said that "unfortunately these negative trends in weather patterns and all of these parameters may continue until the 2060s". "We have already lost the game of sea level rise and glacier melting. That's bad news, then.

Depending on the method of measurement, last year came in at either fifth or sixth hottest on record, which is close to but not quite the record. However, the last eight years have been the hottest eight on record for the entire world. Despite the rare third year of a La Nina, a temporary cooling of some areas of the Pacific Ocean that affects weather globally, the world remained that warm.

The hottest years on record were in the United Kingdom, France, Ireland, Portugal, Spain, Belgium, Luxembourg, Italy, Germany, Switzerland, and New Zealand.

The earliest known global heat and other weather records date from 1850.
"In 2022, continuous drought in East Africa, record breaking rainfall in Pakistan, record-breaking heat waves in China and Europe affected tens of millions, drove food insecurity, boosted mass migration, and cost billions of dollars in loss and damage," Taalas said.

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The 55-page report stated that China's heat wave was the country's longest and largest on record, with its summer breaking the previous record by more than 0.5 degrees Celsius (0.9 degrees Fahrenheit).

According to the report, the devastating flooding in Pakistan, which briefly submerged one-third of the country, resulted in the displacement of about 8 million people. The drought in Africa caused more than 1.7 million people to flee their homes in Somalia and Ethiopia.