Tropical cyclones and storms were also among the deadliest events of the year.
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Mumbai: As many as 157 extreme weather events in 2025 had made humanitarian impact, according to a report of World Weather Attribution (WWA).
Floods and heatwaves were the most frequent occurrences, with 49 events each, followed by storms (38), wildfires (11), droughts (7) and cold spells (3).
WWA uses weather observations and climate models to understand how climate change influences the intensity and likelihood of extreme weather events.
The team studied 22 of those events in-depth: three in Africa, seven in the Americas, five in Asia, six in Europe and one in Oceania. Of those, 17 were made more severe or more likely due to climate change and five had inconclusive results, mostly due to lack of weather data and limitations in climate models.
Extreme weather disproportionally affects vulnerable groups and marginalised communities, according to a WWA press statement.
“Each year, the risks of climate change become less hypothetical and more brutal reality,” said Friederike Otto, Professor in Climate Science at the Centre for Environmental Policy at Imperial College London and co-founder of World Weather Attribution.
“Our report shows that despite efforts to cut carbon emissions, they have fallen short in preventing global temperature rise and the worst impacts. Decision-makers must face the reality that their continued reliance on fossil fuels is costing lives, billions in economic losses, and causing irreversible damage to communities worldwide,” Otto added.
Human-induced climate change continued to bring devastating extreme weather events in 2025.
Despite being a year with La Niña conditions — a feature that is usually associated with colder equatorial Pacific ocean waters and milder global temperatures — this year will still be one of the hottest ever recorded.
The three-year average will also cross the 1.5°C threshold for the first time.
Since 2015, global warming has increased 0.3oC, but some heatwaves have become almost ten times more likely – yet another evidence that when it comes to climate change, every fraction of a degree matters.
Heatwaves were the deadliest extreme weather events of 2025. While most heat-related deaths remain unreported, one study estimated that 24,400 died from a single summer heatwave in Europe this year.
Other WWA studies published in 2025 showed that human-induced climate change intensified heatwaves in South Sudan, Burkina Faso, Norway, Sweden, Mexico, Argentina, and England.
Tropical cyclones and storms were also among the deadliest events of the year. One of the worst examples happened recently, when several simultaneous storms hit Asia and Southeast Asia, killing more than 1,700 people and causing billions in damages. Just a few weeks before, Hurricane Melissa left a trail of destruction in Jamaica. WWA’s work showed that climate change made the rainfall associated with these storms more likely and intense.
The analysis by Climate Central showed that climate change made all 2025 season Atlantic hurricanes at least 9 mph (about 14 km/h) stronger. Even though that is about a 10% increase in the intensity, this can mean a much larger increase in damages - a 44% increase as research on Hurricane Helene in 2024 showed. Many regions, including central Africa, western Australia, central Brazil, Canada, and large parts of the Middle East, experienced some of their driest years on record. These extreme droughts led to water shortages, crop failures, and the worsening of wildfire conditions.
“As extreme weather events grow more frequent and intense, the need for urgent and rapid action has never been clearer. Despite existing efforts to adapt, these events have continued to cause devastating loss of life and billions in economic damages in 2025. To mitigate these impacts and reduce future risks in 2026 and beyond, a rapid transition away from fossil fuels is critical,” the press statement said.