According to two climate research organizations, extreme weather events brought on by climate change have killed over 3,700 people, displaced millions and added 41 days of deadly heat worldwide in 2024. The World Weather Attribution (WWA) and Climate Central analysis, “When Risks Become Reality: Extreme Weather in 2024” emphasizes how vital it is for nations to move away from fossil fuels and strengthen their readiness for extreme weather events in 2025 and beyond.
“This year has been the clearest and most devastating demonstration of the impacts of fossil fuel warming,” said Dr Friederike Otto, lead of WWA and Senior Lecturer in Climate Science at Imperial College London. “Extreme weather killed thousands, displaced millions and caused unrelenting suffering.”
The paper states that in 2024, there would be an average of 41 days of severe heat globally due to human induced climate change. According to the analysis, 26 out of the 29 weather disasters examined including record breaking floods, hurricanes and droughts were made worse by human caused climate change.
Millions were displaced and at least 3,700 people were murdered in these incidents. Among the 219 extreme weather events examined for the research was excessive rainfall in Kerala and the surrounding regions. Floods were the deadliest catastrophe in Africa killing over 2,000 people and uprooting millions more in nations including Sudan, Nigeria and Cameroon.
According to the study if warming exceeds 2 degrees Celsius, a threshold that might be reached as early as the 2040s similar downpour events might start to occur annually. Climate warming made Hurricane Helene which hit six US states 200-500 times more likely by increasing water temperatures. With 230 fatalities, the hurricane surpassed Katrina in 2005 as the second deadliest hurricane to hit the US continent.
An unusual drought in the Amazon which is 30 times more likely to occur due to global warming threatens to cause the forest to become drier endangering both its biodiversity and its ability to absorb carbon.
