What is Climate Change?
The World Weather Attribution (WWA) is an international group of scientists focused on uncovering how climate change influences extreme weather. By using climate modeling, statistical analysis, and comparison to historical occurrences of specific events, WWA has shown how climate change is making natural disasters more frequent and intense. Their simple yet critical mission is to provide clear scientific information that helps communities, governments, and organizations prepare for an increasingly volatile climate.
WWA’s report “When Risks Become Reality: Extreme Weather in 2024” serves as both a warning and a call to action for all individuals of the world. By analyzing major weather disasters throughout the year they demonstrate how warming climate amplifies these natural disasters, affecting millions across the globe, emphasizing that climate change is no longer a threat to the future generation, but a problem of the present one.
WWA’s Prominent Message
The continuous use of fossil fuels and other factors affecting climate change resulted in record heights of extreme weather conditions around the world. In 2024, the average global temperature has risen 1.3°C solely induced by human activity leading to more disastrous weather events such as drought, wildfire, storms, and floods. Due to the increased warming of the globe, these events caused the deaths of at least 3700 people and the displacement of millions, which only includes the events that the WWA has conducted their study on. Unfortunately, however, their estimate of the total number of deaths caused by climate change-intensified natural disasters may be over tens of thousands, reaching hundreds of thousands of people.
The deaths caused by climate change are not only limited to destructive weather events but also include heatwaves. While it is ordinary, depending on the location, to see heatwaves, climate change significantly amplifies their duration and power causing unnecessarily more deaths, especially in small islands and developing countries, which experience the most heatwaves and are highly vulnerable. Extreme events are a natural part of the earth such as El Niño, which is an irregularly occurring natural phenomenon, leading to climatic changes in the Pacific region that disrupt global weather patterns and intensify extreme weather events. However, WWA studies revealed that human activity was the primary driver behind the intensity and frequency of most extreme events, overriding natural phenomena.
The 2024 Extreme Weather Report reveals the devastating impacts of a warming world. The findings urge immediate action to mitigate these risks and build resilience to an uncertain future.
Unanticipated Heatwaves
The WWA highlights heatwaves as the deadliest form of extreme weather, often called “silent killers” due to their nature of leaving no trace behind. Heatwaves do not show signs of destruction like other weather events, so most heatwave deaths go underreported. In 2024, dangerous heat days increased globally, with the average person experiencing 41 additional days of extreme heat caused by climate change. Vulnerable populations in small island developing states and low-income countries suffered the most damage, with some regions enduring over 130 extra dangerous heat days. Climate change has significantly amplified the frequency and intensity of heatwaves, making them ten times more likely in certain areas, such as West Africa, where unusually early heatwaves disrupted communities.
Destructive Floods
The report emphasizes the devastating impact of floods, which were intensified by climate change in 15 out of 16 events studied. Record-breaking rainfall fueled by a warmer atmosphere led to catastrophic flooding in regions such as Central Europe, Sudan, and Brazil. WWA’s report explains how a warmer climate increases atmospheric moisture leading to heavier downpours and more frequent flooding. While in Europe, where infrastructure, including early warning systems, is capable of overcoming floods, and mitigated loss of life, areas with insufficient preparation faced significant casualties and displacement. The continuous warming of the globe makes it only worse for such communities. WWA claims that the catastrophic heavy rainfall events have become a new normal due to human-caused warming and it is expected to occur on average every 3-10 years.
Creeping Droughts and Wildfires
Droughts, though not as sudden, are equally devastating as storms and floods. In 2024, prolonged heat affected agriculture, water resources, and ecosystems across every continent. The Amazon River Basin, one of the largest rainforests and most important land-based carbon sink experienced one of its worst droughts in recent history. Climate change has made such events 50% more likely, pushing the rainforest above its safe limit. Human-caused deforestation may cause half of the rainforest, which humans depend on greatly, an irreversible damage by 2050. Southern Africa also faced severe drought, with 20 million people at risk of hunger due to failed crops as agriculture is often the first sector to be harmed during droughts. It is expected that droughts become more frequent and intense like other weather events because of increasing temperatures and lack of intervention to prevent climate change. Similarly, in 2024, wildfires were also seen increasingly more concurrently with drought and extreme heat. Chile experienced the world’s deadliest wildfire since 2009, with 132 casualties and over a thousand people injured.
Typhoons and Hurricanes
Typhoons and hurricanes also become more intense and destructive due to climate change. Warmer oceans, a direct result of a warmer atmosphere, fuel these storms, increasing their wind speed, rainfall, and overall impact. In the Western North Atlantic, two major hurricanes made onto land in the US, Hurricane Milton and Helene. Both these hurricanes’ power and intensity were amplified by climate change. While Milton was the deadliest hurricane to hit the US since Katrina, together Milton and Helene killed at least 250 people and delivered around $300 billion in damages. On the other side of the earth, Typhoon Gaemi brought 14% amplified rain and winds due to human-induced climate change, affecting millions in the Philippines, Taiwan, and China. Such storms also gather faster in a warmer atmosphere, making preparedness more challenging, and resulting in more possible damage.
El Niño
We mentioned that El Niño is a naturally occurring weather phenomenon that influences the global weather patterns by warming Pacific Ocean temperatures, during which events like droughts in the Western Pacific and floods in the Central and Eastern Pacific occur. However, the studies show that human-induced climate change played a larger role in intensifying most extreme weather events like the Amazon drought, heatwaves in parts of Asia, and floods in the UAE, Oman, and Brazil.
STEPS TOWARD A SAFER FUTURE: WWA’S MUST DO
Transition from Fossil Fuels: Accelerate the shift to renewable energy to reduce global warming and prevent more severe climate impacts.
Strengthen Early Warning Systems: Invest in cost-effective systems to provide timely alerts before extreme weather events, potentially saving lives and reducing damage.
Real-Time Reporting of Heat-Related Deaths: Encourage health systems to track and report heatwave-related deaths to increase public awareness of the dangers of extreme heat.
Increase Financial Support for Developing Countries: Provide funding and resources to help vulnerable nations adapt to climate change and recover from its impacts.
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