Andrea Barthelemy and Eva Krafczyk

Tourist websites for Svalbard, Norway, boast monumental crags of blue glacial ice. Polars bears, the online brochures exult, are at least as plentiful as humans. Svalbard means cold coasts, they say.

Indeed, the archipelago hosting the world's northernmost city - in the midst of the Arctic Ocean between mainland Norway and the North Pole - is cold. But Svalbard, as with most other places on Earth, is getting warmer.

"Typically, sea ice begins to form in the fjords at the beginning of November, but, this year, there was no ice to be found," said US National Snow and Ice Data Center (NSIDC) scientist Julienne Stroeve in a statement after visiting Svalbard in November.

Months before 2016 wound down, it was already clear it would very likely break global temperature records and become the hottest year since 1880 - the year when accurate readings were first taken.

The World Meteorological Organization (WMO) said during UN climate talks in Marrakesh, Morocco, that 2016 average temperatures were expected to be 1.2 degrees higher than the pre-industrial average.

Ice coverage in the Arctic, considered something of a canary in the gold mine for global warming, has dropped considerably in comparison to previous years and is growing more slowly. In October, just three-quarters of the sea surface area was covered with ice, compared with the 30-year mean.

Scientists at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) said that ice coverage in October was the lowest it had been since records began, in 1979. The size of the extent that could be considered "missing," was the size of the US' states of Alaska and Texas combined.

The lack of sea ice formation, which reflects energy from the sun, has also made ocean water temperatures rise much more quickly.

Following a series of 16 record consecutive months, September and

October broke the trend, becoming only the second- and third-warmest on record. Scientists say this could be due to the La Nina phenomenon, which often follows El Nino and cools sea surface waters in the Eastern Central Pacific.

"We may see temperatures continue to cool, but it's likely that we will end up as record warmest. Even if we don't, 2016, 2015 and 2014, however they stack up, are going to be the three warmest years in the historical record," said NOAA climate scientist Jessica Blunden.

It's not just global warming that worries scientists, though. Man-made climate change is also linked to extreme weather events like heatwaves and floods. These, said WMO scientists, have increased in frequency and intensity.

"Because of climate change, the occurrence and impact of extreme events has risen. 'Once in a generation' heatwaves and flooding are becoming more regular. Sea level rise has increased exposure to storm surges associated with tropical cyclones," said WMO Secretary General Petteri Taalas.

The energy released in hurricanes, such as Matthew - which devastated parts of Haiti and the south-eastern United States in late September to early October - is derived largely from rising sea temperatures.

Similar trends can be seen across Europe. German records show that, with the exception of October, all this year's months were warmer than those in previous years. September was extremely hot, its average temperature of 16.8 degrees Celsius as much as 3.5 degrees above the 30-year average.

Storms have also had an impact in Europe, where thunderstorms caused widespread damage in Central Europe. Several people were killed by lightning and flooding caused havoc - though the devastation wrought by European storms cannot be compared to hurricanes in the Caribbean or typhoons in the Pacific.

"Our society is, to some extent, prepared for floods and the like, but not for sudden events, such as flash flooding," said German weather service president Gerhard Adrian.

In the northern US state of Alaska, scientists have registered a rise in average temperatures of about 5.6 degrees Celsius. It has been accompanied by unusually dry weather.

"All this dry weather contributed to some very unusual wildfire occurrences. Wildfire season is long done by October, but there were actually a couple that required action. The fire service had to re-engage after it had been shut down," said NOAA's Rick Thoman.

One organization that keeps track of the impact of climate change on human life and economies, Germanwatch, estimated that during the 20 years leading up to 2015, more than 528,000 people died as a result of extreme weather events, and economic losses added up to more than 3 trillion dollars.

"For many people, climate change is something in the distance - but with our index we also show that the important discussions we are having here are rooted in real-world events," said Germanwatch spokesman Soenke Kreft.-dpa