World battles floods, typhoons and storms: Why weather gods are so angry

Nations across the world are battling severe weather conditions. Death toll due to weather-related incidents over the past few weeks has run into hundreds if not thousands. Typhoons, storms, floods and landslides have rendered millions of people homeless from Vietnam, Philippines, Myanmar in Asia to Nigeria, DR Congo and Central African Republic in Africa and Romania, Poland and Czech Republic in Europe, with storms causing heavy damage in the US’s Florida and North Carolina, where officials have called flash floods a “once in a century” event.

Scientists have attributed such severe weather events to global warming-induced climate change. They say this pattern of natural calamities are likely to intensify in coming years if urgent steps are not taken by countries in a coordinated manner.

Storm Boris batters Europe

Mass flooding has been reported from Europe, where central and eastern parts are battling with severe floods. Storm Boris that made landfall last week barrelled the region so hard that thousands have fled their homes to escape the flood. Czech Republic Prime Minister Petr Fiala has called it a “once-in-a-century flood”.

At least 16 people lost their lives in the Storm Boris-induced rains and floods. It has caused heavy loss to infrastructure, cutting electricity supply to large areas.

In Romania, a mayor called the floods caused by Storm Boris “a catastrophe of epic proportions”. In Poland, Prime Minister Donald Tusk declared a 30-day state of natural disaster in the affected areas at an emergency meeting of the cabinet that he convened on Monday.

Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban cancelled all international engagements to focus on the storm. Hungary is facing a massive challenge in protecting a critical dam breach on the Danube. Hungarian media reports say that the national defence team is helping water specialists who are working round the clock to strengthen the embankments.

And in Austria, Chancellor Karl Nehammer has kept 2,400 soldiers on standby for relief and rescue operations. Around 1,000 troops have been especially earmarked for Lower Austria province, which the government has declared a disaster area.

Across central Europe, authorities expect the impact of Storm Boris to ease by the middle of this week. But the flood situation is likely to remain grim for several European cities. Authorities are still maintaining that the worst “is not behind us yet”.

Over 1,000 dead in Africa

Africa is reeling under massive floods that have wreaked havoc across west and central parts of the continent in recent weeks. Nearly 5 million people have been affected by flooding this year in central and west Africa, and over a million have been rendered homeless or displaced, with hundreds of thousands homes destroyed due to extreme weather events.

The World Health Organization (WHO) has deployed several mobile health teams each comprising 20 medical personnel with essential drugs and medical supplies in some of the affected areas — with particular focus on Nigeria, which is the worst-affected country in Africa.

The WHO is working to provide treatment for minor ailments, routine immunisation, antenatal and postnatal services as well as mental health care and coordinating medical referrals to larger hospitals. It fears that water-borne diseases could create serious health crises in flood-affected areas once waters recede.

Officials from across countries in this region have reported rising waters sweeping deadly animals out of zoos and into human habitation. In Nigeria, flooding brought down walls of a jail, allowing 281 prisoners to escape.

Climate scientists have said that such devastating scale of floods in Africa is yet another manifestation of climate change. This calls for improved flood risk management and climate adaptation.

The Norwegian Refugee Council (NRC) that works extensively in Africa said in a statement this week that heavy floods have exacerbated existing humanitarian crises across the Sahel and Lake Chad region, particularly impacting in countries such as Cameroon, Mali and Niger. It called for increased international support to provide relief to the most vulnerable.

“The situation in the Sahel and Lake Chad region is increasingly dire, as the compounding effects of conflict, displacement, and climate change take a severe toll on vulnerable populations,” said Hassane Hamadou, NRC’s Central and West Africa regional director.

“Our immediate priority is to ensure affected people across the region receive essential support such as shelter, food, and hygiene supplies. Longer-term solutions including the improvement of existing infrastructures must be coordinated with local governments to build resilience against future disasters,” Hamadou said.

“These severe floods are a stark reminder of the Sahel and Lake Chad region’s vulnerability to climate change, which may only worsen in the nearby future. Fragile communities already living in crisis cannot face these challenges alone,” said Hamadou.

Strong storms in East Asia

Typhoon Yagi and other storms have recently impacted several countries in Asia-Pacific. Categorised as a super typhoon, Yagi has been assessed as one of the strongest typhoons to hit Southeast Asia in decades. It has left a trail of destruction in multiple countries, with severe flooding, landslides, and widespread infrastructural damage, said the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (IFRC).

The typhoon severely affected the Philippines, Laos, Vietnam, and Myanmar, triggering both immediate humanitarian responses and long-term recovery efforts. The combined death toll in Southeast Asia has crossed 600 — at least 344 in Vietnam, 226 in Myanmar, 42 in Thailand and four in Laos. Unicef says that more than 6 million children have been affected by typhoon Yagi.

Meanwhile, Shanghai endured the battering by typhoon Bebinca, found to be the strongest storm to hit the commercial capital of China in the past 75 years — practically the strongest under the communist regime in the country. It made landfall on Monday and forced more than 400,000 people to evacuate the financial centre.

Shanghai had to suspend flight operations, shut train routes and close highways — more than 1,600 flights were cancelled across the region and several high-speed train routes were temporarily shut down. All of this came during China’s three-day mid-autumn festival holiday.

Hurricanes hitting America hard

Hurricane Beryl hit Texas and Louisiana in August, leaving more than 2 million people without electricity supply. It brought excessive rainfall and flooding inland. Media reports said hurricane Beryl created a deadly storm surge that reached 4-7 ft in places along the coast. At least 36 people were reported dead in Texas and Louisiana, and 33 across the Caribbean, with Venezuela, Jamaica and others reporting fatalities.

The hurricane is estimated to have caused economic loss in the range of $28-32 billion in the US. Hurricane Beryl was a Category 5 storm, with winds of 165 mph, marking an early start to the hurricane season. It, in fact, became the earliest Category 5 hurricane ever recorded.

To some, this came as an anomaly but the fact is that the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) had issued a warning in May itself for an “above average” hurricane season in the North Atlantic. And the World Meteorological Organization had already said that 2024 would make the ninth consecutive year of “above average” hurricane seasons in the North Atlantic.

This week, North Carolina is facing the wrath of the weather god. Parts of the state have received what local officials termed as the “life-threatening flash flooding”. Some of the North Carolina towns received more than a foot of rain in the first 12 hours of Monday — described by the National Weather Service’s office as the type of deluge that happens once every 200 years.

Weather scientists see a bigger pattern in climate change. Data shows that most ocean basins — except the South Atlantic and North Indian Ocean — experience around 10 hurricanes a decade. As of May 2024, most basins have recorded approximately 5 hurricanes.

The worry is that the oceans indicate an alarming shift in recent years — the emergence of Category 6 hurricanes. There was none in recorded history before 2013 — a category researchers proposed for those with winds blowing at over 309 kmph. Only one storm has breached that level but weather offices report that there has been an increased frequency of storms with increasing wind speeds.

What weather scientists point at is the rate at which extreme weather events linked to global warming-induced climate change is increasing by every season. Billionaire-turned-philanthropist Bill Gates, who runs a climate fund, this week called for investing in nutrition — proposing that this is the best way to fight climate change. Else, he warned, 40 million more children will suffer by 2040 due to climate change.

Even the massive Amazon river system is facing its most severe droughts with some of the navigable channels of tributaries have gone dry at places, with riverbeds exposed to the ground. The Amazon basin has reported its lowest ever water level this week. This comes at a time when Brazil, Venezuela and other countries of the Latin America region are battling severe wildfires. The world climate is calling for more serious attention than it has received.