The largest natural disasters of 2025 - Water Issues - a newspaper about water: water, rivers, water law, EC
Humanity is paying an ever higher price for runaway climate change. Among the largest natural disasters of 2025, the most dramatic were triggered by extreme weather events. According to preliminary estimates by the Reuters agency, their economic costs exceed 100 billion dollars. Human suffering cannot be priced.
Cyclones grow stronger
In line with meteorologists’ forecasts, the global rise in temperature is driving the intensity of storms forming over the oceans. The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) states that although the number of tropical cyclones over the past hundred years has slightly declined, the rainfall and winds accompanying them have become significantly more intense.
In 2025, the effects of these changes were felt primarily by residents of Asia. In November, Vietnam and the Philippines were hit by Typhoon Kalmaegi, with winds reaching 210 km/h and extensive flooding that killed 269 people. At the end of the month, a tropical depression known as Cyclone Senyar developed over the Malay Peninsula. As a result, more than 1,000 people lost their lives in Thailand and Indonesia, while local daily rainfall totals reached 335 to 400 mm. In December, India and Sri Lanka were struck by Cyclone Ditwah, whose death toll is estimated at over 600 victims. In total, more than 1.5 million people were affected by the storm.
Earlier, in October, Hurricane Melissa swept across the Caribbean and was officially recognized as the third most intense in the history of the Atlantic. More than 100 people were killed, and destructive winds of up to 295 km/h leveled island infrastructure. Meanwhile, the September Typhoon Ragasa caused dramatic floods and landslides in the Philippines, Hong Kong, and Vietnam. In China, 2 million coastal residents were evacuated as a precaution, illustrating the potential scale of adaptation measures required in the coming years.
The Earth on fire
Excess water was not the problem everywhere. Prolonged heatwaves combined with a disrupted hydrological cycle caused catastrophic wildfires in North America, Europe, and Australia. As early as January 2025, fires engulfed southern California, destroying more than 18,000 buildings and over 23,000 hectares of forests. According to scientists from Boston University, as many as 440 people may have died as a result.
In summer, fires also devastated Arizona and Colorado, burning a total of more than 110,000 hectares. Over 8 million hectares burned in the Canadian provinces of British Columbia, Saskatchewan, Manitoba, and Alberta, marking the second largest fire disaster in the country’s history.
Among the largest natural disasters of the past year in Europe was the fire season in Spain and Portugal, which covered around 640,000 hectares. In Spain, 4,000 square kilometers of forests were destroyed and thousands of people were evacuated. As a result, the entire northwestern part of the Iberian Peninsula struggled with a significant deterioration in air quality in August.
Natural disasters can be hidden. Drought starves silently
Cyclones, floods, and fires dominated media coverage throughout the year. Much less was published about droughts, which by nature are long lasting. In southern and eastern Africa they have persisted for another consecutive year. The rainy season in 2025 failed once again, and in Somalia alone 185,000 people were forced to leave their homes. The specter of famine caused by drought also hangs over Kenya, Ethiopia, Eritrea, Cameroon, and Sudan.
The worst drought in 50 years affected Turkey, and a very serious water deficit was also recorded in southern and eastern Europe, and even in the rain soaked British Isles.
