The 10 deadliest extreme weather events over the past 20 years

From droughts, floods and heatwaves, it seems no corner of the globe has been spared by fatal climate events in the past two decades. A new study reveals the 10 deadliest extreme weather events since 2004, which combined caused more than 570,000 deaths. On the list are Storm Daniel and the European heatwave, which both hit last year, as well as the Somalian drought in 2011, which killed over a quarter of a million. All 10 events – three tropical cyclones, four heatwaves, a drought and two floods – were made worse by human-caused climate change, say scientists at World Weather Attribution.

Dr Friederike Otto, climatologist at Imperial College London and co-founder of World Weather Attribution, said climate change ‘isn’t a distant threat’. ‘It worsened extreme weather events that left more than 570,000 people dead,’ she said. ‘This study should be an eye-opener for political leaders hanging on to fossil fuels that heat the planet and destroy lives. ‘If we keep burning oil, gas and coal, the suffering will continue.’

At the top of the list is the Somalian drought back in 2011, which caused a severe food crisis and killed 258,000 people. It hit several countries in East Africa including Djibouti, Ethiopia and Kenya, but those in Somalia were particularly affected. Drought was made worse by rising temperatures evaporating water from soils and plants, World Weather Attribution says, ruining crop yields. In Somalia, the situation was exacerbated further by ongoing civil war, which had been impacting the country for the past 20 years.

One of the earlier events on the list – and the second most-deadly – was Cyclone Nargis, which hit Myanmar in May 2008. It killed at least 138,000 people in the southeast Asian country, most by a 11-foot (3.5 metre) wall of water that hit the low-lying Irrawaddy Delta. Cyclone Nargis marked the worst natural disaster to hit Asia since the Boxing Day 2004 tsunami that killed at least 232,000 people. World Weather Attribution said the tsunami, triggered by an Indian Ocean earthquake, is not on the list because it had a geological cause.

Russia is commonly associated with frigid temperatures, but its heatwave of summer 2010 saw monthly temperatures more than 9°F (5°C) above average. Conditions caused an estimated 55,736 deaths, a 25 per cent drop in annual crop production, and a total economic loss of more than $15 billion. Along with catastrophic flooding in Pakistan that year, 2010 was marked as the year of extreme weather. At the time, academics predicted the pronounced conditions will continue across the globe – although even they may not have seen what came next.

European nations including France, Italy, Spain, Germany and the UK faced one of the most dangerous periods of heat in the summer of 2022. While many found temperatures past the 104°F (40°C) mark uncomfortable, the scientists say a total of 53,542 people lost their lives due to the heatwave across Europe. People can die from heat exhaustion and heat stroke when are exposed to extreme heat, especially if elderly or infirmed. In the UK, temperatures broke the 104°F (40°C) mark for the first time, hitting a new record of 104.5°F (40.3°C) on July 19 at Coningsby in Lincolnshire. Earlier this week, another study reported that human-caused global warming caused half of European heat-related deaths in summer 2022.

Almost as lethal was the heatwave of last year, which hit Italy, France, Spain, Germany, Greece and Romania. In all, 37,129 people died due to ‘of quickly rising temperatures across Europe and an increasingly vulnerable population’, World Weather Attribution says. It saw temperatures in the western Mediterranean that would have been ‘impossible’ without climate change, it adds. According to the Met Office, the position of the jet stream inensured the UK avoided a repeat of summer 2022’s extreme heat.

Also last year was Storm Daniel, described as the deadliest Mediterranean tropical-like cyclone in recorded history. It caused an estimated 12,352 deaths, the vast majority in Libya, but also a few in Greece, Bulgaria and Turkey. Libya was hit the hardest largely because torrential rains causing two dams near the city of Derna to fail. World Weather Attribution says: ‘While the dams were not designed to deal with the record rainfall levels the region experienced, a lack of maintenance due to ongoing conflict in the region had led to deterioration of dam infrastructure.’

Hurricanes and typhoons are the same weather phenomenon – tropical cyclones – but the name ‘typhoon’ is given if it develops in the Northwest Pacific. Haiyan, locally known in the Philippines as ‘Yolanda’, was the deadliest typhoon in the country’s modern record. It caused a storm surge – a wall of water – that was more than 16-feet (five metres) high in some areas, including in the town of Tacloban. World Weather Attribution claims that the weather event in 2013 caused 7,354 deaths, but it’s thought overall that 14 million people were affected across 46 provinces.

The North Indian floods, mainly hitting the state of Uttarakhand, killed 6,054 people and became the worst natural disaster since the 2004 tsunami. The disaster of June 2013 was caused by higher-than-usual rainfall, which is made more likely by climate change as warmer air can hold more water. World Weather Attribution estimates that rainfall during the event was 11 per cent more intense due to climate change.

The second cyclone on the list is Cyclone Sidr of November 2007, which caused one of Bangladesh’s worst ever natural disasters. In total 4,234 people were killed when the huge swirling storm system slammed the country’s vulnerable low lying densely populated coastal areas. Cyclone Sidr destroyed over 450,000 houses across 30 districts, through wind damage, flooding and tidal surge. More than 50 percent of households in all of the six worst affected districts were either damaged or destroyed.

Lastly, the European heatwave of 2015 gave the continent a glimpse of what was to come as the 21st century progressed. Summer 2015 was marked by hot and dry conditions over central Europe and significant increases in temperature extremes. In all, 3,275 people died, all in France, again due to an ‘increasingly vulnerable population’ unprepared to deal with heat. World Weather Attribution says: ‘Those most susceptible to heat risks are ageing populations, people with pre-existing health conditions (such as heart, lung and kidney conditions), heavy labourers, young children and people living with mental health conditions.’

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