2010: The year of global weirding - in pictures

Temperatures in Earth's lower atmosphere tied with the warmest year on record. Unofficially, 19 nations set all-time extreme heat records in 2010. An internally displaced Pakistani man takes shelter under a table as temperatures hit 41C during a food distribution on the second day of the Eid celebration at a camp in Sukkur on 12 September 2010 Photograph: Adek Berry/AFP

Snowmageddon The atmospheric circulation in the Arctic took on its most extreme configuration in 145 years of record-keeping. A series of remarkable snowstorms pounded the eastern US with the "Snowmageddon" blizzard dumping more than two feet of snow on Baltimore and Philadelphia Photograph: Jessica Hill/AP

Sea ice Arctic Sea ice volume in 2010 was the lowest on record, with 60% missing in September 2010 compared to the average from 1979-2010 Photograph: Nasa

El Niño The farm worker Antonio Agasser surveys a rice field, dried up due to an El Niño-induced drought, in the barangay of Palattao, in Naguilian, Isabela province, the Philippines. A drought in the Philippines is destroying crops and reducing the country's water supply Photograph: Nana Buxani//Getty Images

Corals Coral reefs took their second-worst beating on record in 2010, thanks to record or near-record high summer water temperatures over much of the planet's tropical oceans. This photograph shows bleached coral (foreground) in Indonesia's Wakatobi archipelago, a thriving marine paradise, packing a bewildering abundance of life that supports 100,000 people and contributes millions of dollars to Indonesia's economy. Last year, coral bleaching caused by higher sea temperatures wreaked havoc across the Coral Triangle, a region of rich tropical reefs spanning much of south-east Asia and almost all of Indonesia. Up to 70% of the coral in Wakatobi, off the south-eastern tip of Sulawesi island, was totally or partially bleached Photograph: Rod Salm/AFP/Getty Images

Aerial view of a drought affected area within the Amazon basin in November 2010 in Manaus, Brazil. A severe drought dropped water levels to its all-time low on the Negro, a major tributary of the Amazon river. According to Brazil's geological service the river was measured at a depth of 13.63 meters, the lowest point since records began Photograph: Rodrigo Baleia/Getty Images

Each year, the globe has about 92 cyclones – called hurricanes in the Atlantic and eastern Pacific, typhoons in the western Pacific and tropical cyclones in the southern hemisphere. In 2010, we had just 68 Photograph: HO/AFP/Getty Images

With storm clouds overhead Minnesota's Hopkins football team do their warm up Photograph: Jerry Holt/Minneapolis Star Tribune/Corbis

Monsoon An abnormal summer monsoon helped lead to precipitation 30-80% below normal in northern China and Mongolia, and 30-100% above average across a wide swath of central China. Western China saw summer precipitation of more than double the average Photograph: Stringer /Reuters

A family wades through flood waters in Pakistan's Muzaffargarh district of Punjab province. Last year set a new record for the wettest term in Earth's recorded history over land areas. The difference in precipitation from the average in 2010 was about 13% higher than that of the previous record wettest year, 1956. The record wetness over land was counterbalanced by relatively dry conditions over the oceans Photograph: Adrees Latif/Reuters

Heatwaves Local residents look at a heavy smog from a peat fire in a forest near the town of Shatura, Russia. A scorching heatwave struck Moscow in late June 2010 and steadily increased in intensity through July, as the jet-stream remained "stuck" in an unusual loop that kept cool air and rain-bearing low-pressure systems far north of the country Photograph: Sergey Ponomarev/AP

Australia floods In 2010, Australia had its wettest spring (September - November) since records began 111 years ago, with some sections of coastal Queensland receiving over 4 feet (1200 mm) of rain. Rainfall in Queensland and all of eastern Australia in December was the greatest on record, and the year 2010 was the rainiest year on record for Queensland. Queensland has an area the size of Germany and France combined, and 3/4 of the region was declared a disaster zone Photograph: Nasa

The inner city suburb of Auchenflower (bottom) is inundated by flood waters after the flood peak of the Brisbane river in Brisbane, Australia, on 13 January 2011. The river reached 4.46 metres, almost a metre lower than the historic flood of 1974 but still inundating dozens of suburbs Photograph: Dave Hunt/EPA

Colombia floods and lanslide Cars amid the rubble on the site of a landslide caused by heavy rain at Gramalote, in north-east Colombia, in December 2010 Photograph: AFP/AFP

Massive storms Vinyl records and CDs lay out to dry outside a flooded home in the Cottonwood community in May 2010 in Franklin, Tennessee. Massive rainstorms caused 10 deaths and the Cumberland river to flood its banks, rising to its highest level in over 70 years Photograph: Jeff Gentner/Getty Images