A string of unprecedented weather and climate events has struck multiple continents in recent weeks, killing hundreds and displacing many more. Why it matters: Unrelenting heat in Southeast Asia, flooding in Brazil and Texas and other events provide a foreboding preview of the summer season and match scientific expectations of a warming climate. • The extremes that have been occurring this spring are happening in a world that has seen global average temperatures increase by about 1.2°C (2.16°F) compared with preindustrial levels. • With most climate models and researchers projecting that warming will exceed 2°C above ... (full story)