Climate disasters strike over 87 million people worldwide in 2025, claiming thousands of lives

A devastating year of climate-related disasters left more than 87.8 million people affected globally in 2025, with over 200 separate events ranging from flash floods and wildfires to severe droughts and tropical storms, according to preliminary data from the International Disaster Database analyzed by Mongabay.

Drought emerged as the most widespread threat, triggering food insecurity across multiple continents. Syria experienced its worst drought in nearly four decades, leaving 14.5 million people without adequate food supplies. Similarly, Kenya faced a January drought that disrupted food access for over 2 million people, while Nepal’s Madhesh province saw 1.2 million residents struggle with food shortages following September’s dry conditions.

The year’s deadliest weather event occurred in late November and early December, when an unprecedented convergence of two tropical cyclones and a typhoon swept across Asia. Indonesia bore the heaviest toll with 1,109 deaths, followed by Sri Lanka with 826 fatalities, while Pakistan and Thailand also reported hundreds of casualties. Meanwhile, Hurricane Melissa became 2025’s most destructive storm in October, reaching catastrophic wind speeds of 185 mph as it tore through the Caribbean, killing at least 127 people across Jamaica, Haiti, Panama, the Dominican Republic, and Cuba.

Climate researchers from World Weather Attribution confirmed that human-caused warming from fossil fuel emissions made Hurricane Melissa both more intense and more likely to occur. Overall, climate-related disasters claimed more than 8,000 lives in 2025, though experts believe the actual death toll is significantly higher due to incomplete reporting from several countries and unreported disasters.