From floods and wildfires to inaction and urgency: These are the top climate and weather stories of 2021

The climate crisis took a catastrophic toll across the globe in 2021. From the Arctic to Louisiana and to China's Henan province, signs that climate change is already altering our weather were everywhere.

In the United States, historic flooding trapped and killed residents in submerged basements. In Canada, an entire town was erased by a wildfire fueled by extreme heat. Rain fell at the summit of Greenland for the first time.

As climate disasters mounted, the world aligned around combating the crisis: Scientists published a landmark report that concluded humans are unequivocally to blame;...