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Australia: The Land of Fire and Flood
Australia has crossed a terrifying milestone that most people didn’t see coming. On land, Australia has already passed 1.5°C of warming, bringing lower streamflows, more fire weather and marine heatwaves. This isn’t just a statistic thrown around by scientists – it’s reshaping how an entire continent lives, works, and survives.
2024 was Australia’s second-hottest year on record overall, behind only 2019, with the average temperature 1.46C above the 1961-1990 average. The country’s weather patterns have become so extreme that Australia’s Bureau of Meteorology also noted that Australia’s ten hottest years all occurred in the past two decades and that only two years of the past 40 have been cooler than average.
The devastating December 2024 heatwave showed just how dangerous Australia’s new normal has become. In mid-December 2024, Australia experienced an intense heatwave affecting multiple states and territories, with temperatures exceeding 40 °C (104 °F) in numerous locations. What made this particularly alarming was the prediction that temperatures would be the hottest observed in Australia since the “Black Summer” heatwaves in 2019–2020. In some areas, temperatures exceeding 45 °C (113 °F) in numerous populated settlements created life-threatening conditions that forced school closures and emergency declarations.
The bushfire situation has become equally terrifying. There has been an increase in extreme fire weather, and in the length of the fire season, across large parts of Australia since the 1950s. This has led to larger and more frequent fires, especially in southern Australia. Climate scientists have documented that there has been an increase in the number of days with dangerous weather conditions for bushfires.
Brazil: From Drought to Deluge
Brazil’s climate has become so unpredictable that the country faces opposite extremes simultaneously – while some regions burn, others drown. In Brazil, 60% of the national territory experienced record droughts, which led to more wildfires in Amazonia, the Cerrado and the Pantanal. The scale of this crisis is staggering: In 2024 alone, 44.2 million acres, roughly the size of California, in Brazil were burned.
The May 2024 floods in Rio Grande do Sul state revealed how dramatically Brazil’s weather patterns have changed. Between 24 April and 4 May 2024 over 420 mm of rain fell in Brazil’s southernmost state Rio Grande do Sul, leading to more than 90% of the state being affected by flooding. The floods displaced more than 80,000 people, led to over 150,000 being injured and, on the 29th of May, to 169 fatalities with 44 people still missing. What shocked meteorologists was the sheer volume of water – two-week rainfall accumulations reached almost 1,000 millimeters in some parts of RGDS, and the state’s capital, Porto Alegre, registered 327 millimeters of rainfall in less than a week at the end of April.
Scientists found that the devastating floods that affected Southern Brazil in April and May, killing 169 and displacing nearly 600,000 people, were made twice more likely to occur by human-caused climate change. The economic impact was devastating, with economic losses expected to exceed 22 billion Brazilian Reals (US $4 billion).
The acceleration of extreme weather events in Brazil is particularly alarming. The process has accelerated this decade, with 4,077 disasters recorded per year on average. During the 1990s, this number was a mere 725, meaning there has been a 460% increase since then. This represents one of the most dramatic increases in climate disasters anywhere on Earth.
Philippines: Caught Between Heat and Hurricanes
The Philippines has become a laboratory for extreme weather, experiencing some of the most dangerous heat waves on record alongside increasingly destructive typhoons. In April, the Philippines, Thailand, Bangladesh and India all faced unrelenting heat that disrupted schooling and created concerns for public health. In Manila, the capital of the Philippines, in-person classes were suspended due to extreme heat, whilst half of the county’s provinces continued to experience drought.
The typhoon season has also become more dangerous. These included Typhoon Yagi in Viet Nam, the Philippines and southern China. Scientists said that as the world and its oceans warm, a bigger share of the most powerful tropical cyclones are reaching category 3 or above (5 being the highest), with faster maximum wind speeds, heavier rainfall and much greater destructive potential.
The combination of extreme heat and powerful storms has created a double threat for Filipino communities. The heat waves alone have forced unprecedented disruptions to daily life, with school suspensions becoming a regular occurrence during what should be normal spring months. Meanwhile, the increasingly powerful typhoons bring devastating flooding and wind damage that takes months or years to recover from.
United Arab Emirates: When Desert Floods
The UAE experienced something that seemed impossible – catastrophic flooding in one of the world’s driest countries. In April, the United Arab Emirates experienced extreme downpours which caused flooding across major highways and Dubai International Airport. Cars were stranded, and the airport — the world’s busiest hub for international travel — saw major delays and disruptions. The rainfall was the heaviest the country had experienced in 75 years.
This event shattered all previous records and showed how climate change can bring unprecedented weather to regions completely unprepared for such extremes. The sight of Dubai’s gleaming skyscrapers surrounded by floodwater became a symbol of how rapidly our climate is changing. The infrastructure, designed for a desert environment, was completely overwhelmed by rainfall amounts that would have been impossible in the region’s historical climate.
The flooding paralyzed one of the world’s most important transportation hubs, demonstrating how extreme weather events can have global economic consequences. When Dubai International Airport – a critical connection point for international travel – shuts down due to flooding, it affects travel and commerce worldwide.
Sudan: Where Floods Kill Thousands
Sudan has experienced some of the deadliest flooding in recent history, with climate change making these disasters both more likely and more severe. Meanwhile, floods in Sudan, Nigeria, Niger, Cameroon and Chad were the deadliest event studied by WWA in 2024, with at least 2,000 people killed and millions displaced.
The devastating scale of loss in Sudan represents one of the most tragic examples of how climate change disproportionately affects vulnerable populations. The floods didn’t just cause immediate deaths – they displaced millions of people who had no resources to rebuild their lives. The combination of political instability and extreme weather has created a humanitarian crisis that continues to worsen.
What makes Sudan’s situation particularly alarming is the projection for future rainfall patterns. The group found that if warming reaches 2C, which could happen as soon as the 2040s or 2050s, those regions could experience similar periods of heavy rainfall every year. This means that what happened in 2024 could become an annual occurrence within the next two decades.
Kenya: From Drought to Deadly Floods
Kenya experienced one of the most dramatic weather whiplashes recorded anywhere, going from severe drought to catastrophic flooding in less than a year. In early May, floods and heavy rainfall in Kenya took the lives of more than 225 people. A further 160 people were injured and over 212,630 people have been displaced across the country. This comes just a year after parts of Kenya experienced four consecutive seasons with little rain, creating one of Kenya’s worst droughts.
This extreme swing from drought to flood illustrates how climate pollution is disrupting our rainfall patterns, leading to extreme downpours punctuated by prolonged dry spells. For farmers and pastoralists who depend on predictable seasonal rains, this variability has become catastrophic. When the rains finally came, they were too intense for the drought-hardened ground to absorb, leading to devastating flash floods.
The human cost of this weather volatility cannot be overstated. Communities that had barely survived the prolonged drought were then hit by floods that destroyed what little they had managed to preserve. This pattern is becoming increasingly common across East Africa, where traditional seasonal patterns that communities have relied on for generations are breaking down.
Canada: Unprecedented Fire and Heat
Canada has experienced some of the most extreme fire seasons on record, with 2024 continuing the devastating trend that began with the “Black Summer” of 2023. Communities across Western Canada are again experiencing a very early start to their fire season. Wildfires are burning out of control, moving rapidly and forcing towns to evacuate. Firefighters said that extreme fire danger has been made worse by years of drought and a below normal snowpack the past winter. This comes right after Canada’s own ‘Black Summer’, with the country enduring the longest and most destructive fire season in its history last year.
The unprecedented nature of Canada’s fire seasons has forced entire communities to evacuate multiple times, with some towns becoming uninhabitable during summer months. The combination of drought conditions, reduced snowpack, and extreme heat has created a perfect storm for massive wildfires that burn hotter and faster than anything in recorded history.
What’s particularly concerning is how these fires are changing Canada’s landscape permanently. Some forest areas are not regenerating after fires, fundamentally altering ecosystems that have existed for thousands of years. The smoke from these fires now regularly blankets cities across North America, creating air quality emergencies hundreds of miles away from the actual fires.
United States: Billion-Dollar Disasters
The United States has entered an era where billion-dollar weather disasters have become routine rather than exceptional. With Hurricane Helene at the top of the list, there were 27 disasters in the United States in 2024 that individually cost $1 billion or more. It was the second-highest number since the NOAA record began in 1980.
The scale of destruction has reached unprecedented levels. In the United States, Hurricanes Helene and Milton in October both made landfall on the west coast of Florida as major hurricanes, with economic losses of tens of billions of dollars. Over 200 deaths were associated with the exceptional rainfall and flooding from Helene, the most in a mainland United States hurricane since Katrina in 2005.
The tornado season has also become more unpredictable and dangerous. In the USA, over 500,000 people were left without electricity as powerful tornadoes tore through four states in the USA. Whilst this part of the USA is prone to tornadoes, a warming atmosphere may be changing the location, timing and duration of these highly destructive weather events, making them more difficult to prepare for.
The financial burden of these disasters is staggering. Losses from the billion-dollar disasters tracked by NCEI have averaged $140 billion per year over the last decade. 2017 was the costliest year, exceeding $300 billion—proportional to about 25% of the $1.3 trillion building value put in place that year. This represents a fundamental shift in how much weather disasters cost American society.
Vietnam: Typhoon Devastation
Vietnam has experienced increasingly powerful typhoons that cause massive destruction across the country. These included Typhoon Yagi in Viet Nam, the Philippines and southern China. Tropical cyclones were responsible for many of the highest-impact events of 2024.
The intensification of typhoons affecting Vietnam represents a significant threat to the country’s coastal communities and agriculture. As ocean temperatures rise, these storms are becoming more powerful and bringing unprecedented amounts of rainfall. The combination of strong winds and extreme precipitation creates devastating flooding that can persist for weeks.
Vietnam’s vulnerability to these extreme weather events is particularly concerning because much of the country’s population and economic activity is concentrated in coastal areas and river deltas. When powerful typhoons strike, they can affect millions of people simultaneously, overwhelming the country’s disaster response capabilities.
Global Impact: A World Without Normal Weather
The evidence is overwhelming – we are witnessing the end of predictable weather patterns across the globe. Globally, climate change added on average 41 additional days of dangerous heat in 2024 that threatened people’s health, according to new analysis by Climate Central. This represents a fundamental shift in what humans can expect from their environment.
Climate change contributed to the deaths of at least 3,700 people and the displacement of millions in 26 weather events we studied in 2024. These were just a small fraction of the 219 events that met our trigger criteria, used to identify the most impactful weather events. It’s likely the total number of people killed in extreme weather events intensified by climate change this year is in the tens, or hundreds of thousands.
The World Meteorological Organization has confirmed that we’ve reached a critical threshold. WMO’s State of the Global Climate report confirmed that 2024 was likely the first calendar year to be more than 1.5°C above the pre-industrial era, with a global mean near-surface temperature of 1.55 ± 0.13 °C above the 1850-1900 average. This is the warmest year in the 175-year observational record.
Looking ahead, the situation is expected to worsen significantly. There is a forecast 70% chance that the five-year average warming for 2025-2029 will be more than 1.5°C, according to the report. This is up from 47% in last year’s report (for the 2024-2028 period) and up from 32% in the 2023 report for the 2023-2027 period. We’re not just experiencing a temporary weather anomaly – we’re witnessing the emergence of a fundamentally different climate system that will define the rest of human civilization.
