When the history books are written, 2010 is likely to be seen as a seminal point in the cLimate change debate. The increasingly heavy rainfall that enveloped eastern Australia as the year progressed was a dramatic reversal of the record dry conditions extending back to 2001, as a strong La Nina event developed in the Pacific Ocean, replacing the equally strong El Nino that preceded it. Globally, climatic records were broken in all directions, whether high snowfalls and extreme cold in the North American and European winters, extreme heat in the Northern Hemisphere summer, particularly in Russia, record fLoods in China, Pakistan and currently Australia, Brazil and Sri Lanka, and extreme drought in the Amazon. Record high temperatures occurred in many regions, notably in the Arctic.
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