Global Extreme Weather Intensifies as 900 Studies Link Human Activity to Severe Floods and Heatwaves
Human-driven climate change has influenced 85 per cent of nearly 1,000 extreme weather events and trends mapped in a comprehensive scientific repository compiled by the UK-based organisation Carbon Brief. Across the mapped cases, 77 per cent were made more likely or severe because of climate change, while several studies demonstrated that specific disasters would have been nearly impossible without human influence on global temperatures. Only 8 per cent of the tracked events and trends were made less likely or less severe by the changing climate.
The findings arrive as global surface temperatures continue an upward trajectory. In 2025, the average global surface temperature reached approximately 1.44 degrees Celsius above the preindustrial average spanning 1850 to 1900. This sustained warming of the atmosphere stems from the accumulation of human-produced greenhouse gases over the past century.
NASA Satellite Data Reveals Record Weather Intensity
Satellite monitoring from NASA’s GRACE mission indicates a dramatic acceleration in the intensity of severe droughts and floods. Data released by NASA in 2025 shows that severe weather events became more frequent, longer-lasting, and significantly more intense over the preceding five years. Figures recorded in 2024 reached twice the average level calculated between 2003 and 2020.
Researchers point to climate change as the primary driver behind these intensified events, noting that the severity of storms and dry spells has risen at a pace exceeding overall global temperature increases. However, scientists caution that confirming this as a definitive long-term trend requires extended observation. Bailing Li from the Hydrological Sciences Laboratory at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Centre notes that proving direct causation demands a much larger dataset. While pinpointing the exact mechanism remains complex, wider evidence points to global warming as the central factor behind the growing frequency of global extremes.
Industrial Emissions Destabilise Himalayan Slopes and Trigger Nepal Floods
Industrial emissions and rising temperatures have directly impacted high-elevation regions, culminating in a devastating rock collapse in the Himalayas that caused catastrophic floods in Nepal and Tibet in August. A September report compiled by two dozen international researchers and published by World Weather Attribution demonstrates how warming temperatures destabilised ice and permafrost beneath mountain slopes in the Langtang Lirung area.
Temperatures near the northern face of the mountain reached approximately 12 degrees Celsius in the days preceding the disaster. July and August set tied records for Earth’s hottest month, reflecting high global temperatures that amplified permafrost thaw. As rising fossil fuel emissions elevated mercury levels and warmed high-altitude environments, permafrost—the ice-cemented soil holding bedrock cracks together—thawed and exposed the rock to above-freezing conditions. This process allowed water to permeate bedrock fractures, though researchers also noted that the 2015 Nepal earthquake contributed to prior slope destabilisation.
Financial Recovery Costs and UN Climate Aid Requests
The Himalayan disaster resulted in more than 1,300 deaths, with thousands of people remaining missing in the aftermath. Nepal faces recovery and rebuilding expenditures estimated at approximately $5 billion. The unpeer-reviewed attribution report provides evidence that the Nepalese government can utilise to support formal requests for financial assistance from the United Nations climate aid fund.
The connection between human activity and extreme weather traces back more than two decades. In 2004, researchers published a landmark study linking human-caused climate change directly to the 2003 European summer heatwave, which claimed more than 70,000 lives. That initial research determined that human involvement at least doubled the risk of such an extreme heat event, establishing a foundation for modern attribution science.