Climate catastrophe 2025: Extreme weather claims 24,400 lives in Europe

Climate catastrophe 2025: Extreme weather claims 24,400 lives in Europe

The year 2025 will be marked by unprecedented extreme weather events that have had devastating effects across the globe. Despite initial hopes for a cooler year due to the absence of El Niño and lower sea surface temperatures, global temperatures remained exceptionally high. Looking back, 2025 is predicted to be the second or third hottest year on record, with exact figures to be released next January 2026 by the European Earth observation program Copernicus, while the average temperature has risen by 0.3 degrees since the Paris climate agreement. This reported tagesschau.de.

A notable aspect is the 157 extreme weather events of the year documented by the World Weather Attribution. This includes the most common cases: floods and heat waves, which top the list with 49 incidents each. It is particularly noted that heat waves are considered the deadliest extreme weather events. In Europe, they tragically claimed 24,400 lives in 2025, two thirds of whom would have survived without advancing climate change.

A look at the causes

How individual extreme weather events develop is influenced by numerous factors, with climate change being identified as the biggest driver. According to a report on the extreme weather events of 2024, they were exacerbated by climate change, resulting in record temperatures, heatwaves, drought, wildfires and floods. There were also significant losses here, with at least 3,700 deaths and millions displaced in 26 weather events studied. Climate change has become so important that 70 percent of the extreme weather events studied have been shown to be influenced, with many of them directly linked to climate change-related precipitation, particularly flooding. worldweatherattribution.org reports on it comprehensively.

Another example of the devastating consequences of climate change is Hurricane Melissa, which hit Jamaica in October 2025 and was the strongest hurricane since records began in 1851. Despite good preparation for this storm, there were many fatalities and immense property damage. This shows how important it is not only to address the causes, but also to optimize adaptation measures and early warning systems to reduce the impact of future events.

The future in sight

There are increasing calls for a rapid exit from fossil fuels in order to comprehensively combat climate change. Experts emphasize that without drastic action on climate change, every day will bring further suffering. In order to minimize the increasing number of extreme weather events, the rapid switch to renewable energies and the development of robust early warning systems are also crucial. The role that our weather and climate plays is more than ever the focus of research. The German Weather Service in particular emphasizes that we can expect more storms, rainfall and heat waves, not only globally, but also here in Germany, where temperatures alone have risen by an average of 1.7 degrees Celsius since 1881. ardalpha.de points out that these changes threaten to become commonplace.