2024’s weather extremes wreaking havoc, giving rise to ‘ferocious’ floods, droughts: Report

Weather extremes of 2024 are wreaking havoc with how water moves around the planet, contributing to ferocious floods and crippling droughts, according to a new report.

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India saw record-high precipitation, along with countries in West Africa and Europe, it found.

Global warming, caused by fossil fuel burning, is increasing the strength and rainfall intensity of monsoons, cyclones and other storm systems, an international team of researchers, led by those at The Australian National University (ANU), said.

“2024 was a year of extremes but was not an isolated occurrence. It is part of a worsening trend of more intense floods, prolonged droughts, and record-breaking extremes,” lead author Albert van Dijk, a professor of water science and management, ANU, said. About four billion people, or half the world’s population, from across 111 countries are estimated to have experienced their warmest year yet.

“Rising sea surface temperatures intensified tropical cyclones and droughts in the Amazon Basin and southern Africa. Global warming also contributed to heavier downpours and slower-moving storms, as evidenced by deadly flash floods in Europe, Asia and Brazil,” van Dijk said.

Air temperatures over land were 1.2°C warmer than at the start of the century, and about 2.2°C higher than at the start of the Industrial Revolution, the team found. Data for analyses was taken from ground stations and satellites.

The most damaging water-related disasters included flash floods, river floods, droughts, tropical cyclones and landslides, killing more than 8,700 people, displacing 40 million people and causing economic losses exceeding USD 550 billion, according to the report.

Landslides in India’s Wayanad district in Kerala are estimated to have claimed 375 lives, displacing 10,000 people and caused damages worth USD 140 million.

“The Wayanad landslides are part of a broader trend of increasing landslide events across the Western Ghats, which align with climate models predicting more frequent and intense rainfall due to global warming,” the authors wrote.

In Bangladesh, heavy monsoon rains and dam releases in August caused widespread river flooding, affecting over 5.8 million people and destroying at least one million tonnes of rice, the team found.

Afghanistan, Pakistan and Brazil were among other countries affected by heavy rainfall events.

Further, rainfall records were seen to be broken more often.

“For example, record-high monthly rainfall totals were achieved 27 per cent more frequently in 2024 than at the start of this century, whereas daily rainfall records were achieved 52 per cent more frequently. Record-lows were 38 per cent more frequent, so we are seeing worse extremes on both sides,” van Dijk said.

On the other hand, the Amazon Basin in South America and regions in southern Africa suffered ‘crippling’ droughts.

The authors said there was a need to prepare for and adapt to more severe weather extremes.

“That can mean stronger flood defences, developing more drought-resilient food production and water supplies, and better early warning systems,” van Dijk said.