The world meterological society notes the extreme weather of 2005.

GENEVA (Reuters) - Catastrophic storms like Hurricanes Katrina and Stan took weather extremes to new levels in 2005, with flooding and heatwaves touching almost every continent, the United Nations weather body WMO said on Thursday.

But in an annual review, WMO Secretary-General Michel Jarraud said that while high temperatures and heavy rains could probably be linked to global warming, this phenomenon could not yet be firmly blamed for the summer's Caribbean hurricanes.

"This year is currently the second warmest on record, and could end up being the warmest once all the figures are in," Jarraud told a news conference. "It has certainly been exceptional in the intensity of its storms."

A long-time weather scientist who has headed the Geneva-based World Meteorological Organization for the past two years, he said extreme heat -- often bringing severe drought -- had spread across all continents but Europe.

Europe itself -- mainly in its eastern and south-eastern regions -- had suffered both torrential rains and flooding, which also affected Bangladesh, China, New Zealand and Guyana in South America, among other areas.

And the tropical systems that swept around the Caribbean and the Gulf of Mexico trailing destruction and human tragedy were -- taken together -- the worst ever, with 26 named storms easily breaking the previous record of 21 in 1933.