World hit by record extreme weather events in 2007: WMO

GENEVA (AFP) - Many parts of the world have experienced record extreme weather conditions including unusual floods, heatwaves, storms and cold snaps since the beginning of the year, the UN's weather agency said Tuesday.

Preliminary observations also indicated that global land surface temperatures in January and April reached the highest levels ever recorded for those months, the World Meteorological Organization said in a statement.

The WMO said global land temperatures were likely to have been 1.89 degrees Celsius warmer than average in January and 1.37 degrees above average in April.

In Europe alone, April temperatures are thought to have been about four degrees above average, WMO scientist Omar Baddour told journalists.

The conditions match predictions of more frequent extremes given by scientists in the UN's Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, who are monitoring the progress and causes of global warming, Baddour underlined.