Title from publisher's bibliographic system (viewed on 05 Oct 2015).

Significance of weather and climate extremes to society : an introduction / Henry F. Diaz, Richard J. Murnane -- Defining and modeling the nature of weather and climate extremes. Definition, diagnosis, and origin of extreme weather and climate events / David B. Stephenson -- Observed changes in the global distribution of daily temperature and precipitation extremes / David R. Easterling -- Spatial distribution of severe convective storms and an analysis of their secular changes / Harold E. Brooks, Nikolai Dotzek -- Regional storm climate and related marine hazards in the Northeast Atlantic / Hans von Storch, Ralf Weisse Extensive summer hot and cold extremes under current and possible future climatic conditions : Europe and North America / Alexander Gershunov, Herve Douville -- Beyond mean climate change : what climate models tell us about future climate extremes / Claudia Tebaldi, Gerald A. Meehl -- Tropical cyclones and climate change : revisiting recent studies at GFDL / Thomas R. Knutson, Robert E. Tuleya.

Impacts of weather and climate extremes. Extreme climatic events and their impacts : examples from the Swiss Alps / Martin Beniston -- Impact of weather and climate extremes on coral growth / M. James, C. Crabbe, Emma L.L. Walker, David B. Stephenson -- Forecasting US insured hurricane losses / Thomas H. Jagger, James B. Elsner, Mark A. Saunders -- Integrating hurricane loss models with climate models / Charles C. Watson, Jr., Mark E. Johnson -- Exploration of trends in normalized weather-related catastrophe losses / Stuart Miller, Robert Muir-Wood, Auguste Boissonnade -- All overview of the impact of climate change on the insurance industry / Andrew Dlugolecki -- Toward a comprehensive loss inventory of weather and climate hazards / Susan L. Cutter, Melanie Gall, Christopher T. Emrich -- Catastrophe modeling response to Hurricane Katrina / Robert Muir-Wood, Patricia Grossi -- Risk Prediction Initiative : a successful science-business partnership for analyzing natural hazard risk / Richard J. Murnane, Anthony Knap.

Extreme climatic events present society with significant challenges in a rapidly warming world. Ordinary citizens, the insurance industry and governments are concerned about the apparent increase in the frequency of weather and climate events causing extreme, and in some instances, catastrophic, impacts. Climate Extremes and Society focuses on the recent and potential future consequences of weather and climate extremes for different socioeconomic sectors. The book also examines actions that may enable society to better respond to climate variability. It provides examples of the impact of climate and weather extremes on society. How have these extremes varied in the past, and how might they change in the future? What type of efforts will help society adapt to potential future changes in climate and weather extremes? The book is designed for all policy-makers, engineers and scientists who have an interest in the effects of climate extremes on society.