When it comes to weather extremes, it's hard to put them into context. Sure, we'll see images on TV of blizzards, forest fires, and other climatic events, but it isn't easy to put events together into one big world picture, especially when a lot of the events happen so far from our homes. To help us get a better feel for the global situation, the National Oceanographic and Atmospheric Administration released a world map showing major climate anomalies from 2006. The map also shows whether the climate activity in certain areas was normal or not. It's a well-done and concise presentation of data in an easy-to-understand format.

For a more historical view of extreme weather, you can also take a look at the new list of "Notorious U.S. Storms" on p. 302 of the 2007 edition of The World Almanac--a great way to see how recent storms like Hurricanes Katrina (2005) and Floyd (1999) compare with storms as far back as the 19th century.