Summary/Abstract
This report summarizes the 2022 state of the climate and the extreme and high-impact weather and climate events in Latin America and the Caribbean, placed in the context of long-term climate variability and change, as well as the associated socioeconomic impacts.
The report finds that extreme weather and climate shocks are becoming more acute in Latin America and the Caribbean, as the long-term warming trend and sea level rise accelerate. Tropical cyclones, heavy precipitation and flooding events, and severe multi-year droughts continued to cause significant human and economic losses in the region throughout 2022. Sea levels continued to rise at a higher rate in the South Atlantic and the subtropical North Atlantic compared to the global mean, threatening the continental coastal areas of several Latin American and Caribbean countries and small island developing States. Floods and landslides triggered by heavy rainfall led to hundreds of fatalities and billions of US dollars in economic losses across the region. Exceptionally high temperatures, low air humidity and severe drought led to periods of record wildfires in many South American countries.