Climatic extremes and weather hazards, ranging from daily to decadal time-scales and longer, have been increasingly responsible for significant socioeconomic impacts. Such recent extremes include the widespread European heat wave and major flooding in Pakistan in 2010. Recent extreme climate events in the United States include severe drought in Texas, Midwest flooding, Hurricane Irene, and East Coast blizzards. A newly published report from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) reveals that increased climatic and weather extremes are expected with future climate change due to anthropogenic warming. High-resolution historical and paleoclimate records provide a critical means to assess extreme events of the modern period in a long-term context. These longer records have the potential to improve our probabilistic models for projecting changes in the likelihood of various types of climate extremes and provide a basis for mitigation schemes. This session provides both current and paleoclimatic perspectives on the nature of recent extreme climate and weather events and their societal and ecological impacts, with a focus on the United States.